ORLANDO, Fla. — On his hands and knees with four land mine explosives strapped to his arms and legs, each weighing roughly 22 pounds, Ruslan Tishchenko crawled through manmade ditches to place the bombs in a straight line on June 8. After placing two of the mines roughly 6½ feet apart, he briefly lifted his head and noticed someone flashing a light off to the distance in some trees.
Seconds later, a Russian tank began shooting and set off a landmine about 32 feet away followed by another two explosions that threw him over 23 feet into the air. Immediately, the 45-year-old Ukrainian soldier knew his injuries would be bad as he saw his right leg facing the wrong direction.
Fellow soldiers carried Tishchenko into a car with the last land mine still strapped to his right leg as he hadn’t finished placing the mine before the Russians discovered him. After being transferred from the car into an ambulance Tishchenko made it to an emergency center in four hours and was later transferred to a hospital in Lviv where he stayed recovering from surgery.
