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Vadim Dovhoruk, a Ukrainian special forces combat veteran, was severely wounded in 2015 and is a triple amputee. He is a strong-willed and straightforward individual who has climbed 2,000-meter-high mountains on prosthetic legs. Here, he walks past a memorial for fallen Ukrainian soldiers, some of whom he knew personally, in the central Ukrainian city of Kropivnytsky.
Vadim was asked several years ago to connect with a wounded soldier who had fallen into depression after having one leg amputated below the knee. He visited the next day and was able to lift the soldier's spirits by using his own story as a positive example. The next day volunteers called Vadim again asking what to say to this solider who had quickly fallen back into a deep depression. "I said, give him a pistol and let him shoot himself, or not. No one can say anything that will help him. He needs to want to help himself."
Shortly after Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, Vadim found himself fundraising to purchase equipment for his friends serving on the frontline. "The State does what it can, but with everything as difficult as it is, it can't, for example, supply a new vehicle every week [to the same small group of guys]," he said with a laugh before adding, "A vehicle can survive the entire war, or, it can last only several hours before it is destroyed."