Soldier Maksym Karasyk

Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I was the director of a trading and manufacturing company. On 24.02.2022, after the introduction of martial law, I came to work, handed over all my cases and voluntarily went to the military registration and enlistment office the next day. Since I did not perform military service, they could not find my file in the chaos.

I spent four days at the military commissariat from morning until late into the evening, and they finally managed to get my documents done and mobilise me. On 1st March 2022, I was sent to military unit A1778. That's how I became part of the glorious 15th Separate Mountain Assault Battalion of the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade. I was assigned to the 2nd Mountain Assault Company as a machine gun crewman. I got the military rank of soldier.

I completed a four-day training course in tactical and medical skills. After that, I was sent to the area of combat operations - Lyman, Kreminna, then I was transferred to the village of Stara Krasnianka (suburb of Rubizhne, Luhansk region).

On 09.04.2022, during a mortar shelling, I was wounded in the left leg. I got evacuated. And was treated in a hospital in Vinnytsia, then underwent rehabilitation in the Uzhhorod Hospital for War Veterans. On the 15th of May, I returned to service.

I felt fear only during the first shelling, then I remembered the faces of my daughter and wife and realised what I was fighting for. For my family, freedom and Ukraine. 

I have always been the first in defensive and assault operations.

I was awarded the medal "Defender of the Homeland" for participating in hostilities in the village of Stara Krasnianka (suburb of Rubizhne, Luhansk region).

In June, as part of the 15th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, I was deployed to Zaporizhzhia region and was assigned to combat duty. I underwent intensive training in combat tactical training, tactical medicine, and engineering. 

On 15.08.2022, our unit was sent to the Donetsk region. We took part in hostilities near the village of Odradivka (suburb of Bakhmut, Donetsk region).

In September, I was transferred again, this time to Kherson region. We took part in the liberation of Zolota Balka, Novooleksandrivka, Mykhailivka settlements.

On 03.10.2022, during an assault near the village of Nova Kamianka (Kherson region), I received shrapnel wounds from two shots from a tank. During the second injury, I lost consciousness for a few seconds, and in the darkness remembered that I had promised my daughter and wife to return. I regained consciousness. And never lost consciousness again...

I was evacuated. I was treated in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Mukachevo, and Uzhhorod. Severe polytrauma - shrapnel wounds to the right lung, multiple blunt and perforating wounds to the right thigh (sciatic nerve injury and contusion), wounds to the right forearm with loss of part of the muscles and part of the ulna (a bone graft was taken from the iliac crest and bone autoplasty was performed, a titanium plate was fitted to the entire length of the ulna), and one left hand finger was injured.

On 26.04.2023, I was discharged from the 15th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade for health reasons based on the conclusion of the Military Qualification Commission. On 1 May 2023, I was removed from the military register. Now I have a 2nd disability group (War Veteran) with a 80% loss of ability to work. 

At the beginning of summer, I returned to my duties and am now a director again. I take part in volunteer activities (Movement supporting Transcarpathian soldiers in Uzhhorod, DrukArmia). 

I underwent rehabilitation at the Transcarpathian Regional Clinical Centre for Neurosurgery and Neurology in Uzhhorod. I have almost fully restored the movement of my arm, but I am under the supervision of a traumatologist - the scars after the operation have not fully healed and local inflammation has developed in the area where the titanium plate is attached to the forearm bone. I have to undergo surgery to have the plate removed. 
Now I am working on restoring the movement of the foot. There is already some progress. At the beginning there were 0 points, and at the moment - up to 2 points. I am under the supervision of a neurologist.

I am currently in need of rehabilitation at the Zakhidnyi Rehabilitation and Sports Centre of the National Committee for Sports for the Disabled People of Ukraine.
 

COLLECTED AND TRANSFERRED: UAH 90,000