Oleksandr Budko doesn’t know exactly how he was wounded. Resting near the frontline with his mortar-fire support unit in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region, he lay down for cover in a trench while waiting for instructions from senior commanders, and started to fall asleep. Then everything changed in a moment: a shower of mud, the stench of scorched earth, and an intense pain. He hadn’t even heard the whistle of incoming fire, but it was soon clear that part of his foot was gone.
It was August 2022, the first summer of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine – in the month afterwards, the Kharkiv region would be liberated from enemy forces by a surprise counteroffensive. Budko, heavily wounded by some sort of projectile, perhaps a shell, was evacuated to hospital for lifesaving emergency care. Over the next few days, necrosis set in and both his legs had to be amputated below the knee.
