You're reading: Ukraine’s Heroes: Soldier says ‘I just want to protect my native land’

Editor's Note: Ukraine's Heroes is a Kyiv Post project devoted to soldiers injured in Russia's war against the nation. Periodically we will tell the stories of these wounded warriors, many of whom need money for treatment, surgeries and prosthesis. Over 1,000 soldiers have been killed and at least 3,400 injured in the war so far.

It’s been just a few days since volunteer soldier Mykhaylo Symonenko, 33, has been transferred to Irpin Military Hospital after being wounded in Chernuhino village in Luhansk Oblast, but says he is happy to be here.

“At least this one is close to home,” he says and lights up a cigarette. Symonenko’s family lives in Vladislavka village in Kyiv Oblast. His wife just visited him, still shocked.

Smoking is forbidden in the hospital room, of course, but the man’s foot injury doesn’t allow him to move around much.

He’s already been in two hospitals in Artemivsk and later in Kharkiv after his brigade came under shelling on Sept. 25 as they protected a checkpoint. When shrapnel struck his foot, breaking almost all the bones. Four surgeries, including skin grafting, have already been done; though doctors are still not sure how long rehabilitation will take.

However, Symonenko does not seem despairing. He even jokes, welcoming visitors to sit on his bed by saying that his wounded leg doesn’t occupy much space now.

He used to work as a blacksmith, doing artistic forging. The soldier has a simple reply to what made him voluntarily go to war. “I just wanted to protect my native land,” Symonenko says.

Symonenko’s family has been living in Donetsk since he was a child. He even worked as a coal miner. He moved to Kyiv oblast only a few years ago when offered a job in a private blacksmith company. His family is still in the war zone.

The soldier says his former colleagues in Donetsk now accuse him of betrayal; however, this has not affected his desire to fight for Ukraine.

Symonenko volunteered for the army on Aug. 29 and became a soldier of the 11th Territorial Defense Battalion of Kyiv Oblast. The battalion was sent to the country’s east right away without prior training.

His wife Viktoria Mordan says back then she didn’t even try to convince him to stay at home. “I knew that he is too stubborn to listen to me,” she says sadly and takes out some homemade food to serve her warrior.

Symonenko says he would gladly go back to Donbas to keep fighting, but doubts his injury would let him to do it any time soon. “Besides that, now I am not sure that I can get away from my wife alive”, he laughs.

To transfer money to help Mykhaylo Symonenko, send contributions to:

Bank “Pryvat”

4149 4978 1212 5732

Victoria Mordan (Mykhaylo Symonenko’s wife)

Mobile number: 097 391 6414