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A doctor at the Unbroken Center places tape on Andrii’s Zhilin-amputated leg. Andrii, 26, stepped on a landmine during fighting in the Bakhmut area in August and participated in the battle for the next 13 hours until he was evacuated from the battlefield.Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail
Amid the tragedies of the war in Ukraine, there are small victories, small moments of hope that inspire and unite the defenders. One of those moments occurred in Kiev on Sunday, when war amputees with prosthetic legs took part in a charity race that had the crowd cheering with pride.
The race, organized by express delivery company Nova Post and billed as the “world’s longest marathon” – a reference to the 3,359 days that have passed since the war began with Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 – involved 15 amputees participants who were given new limbs at the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center of St. Panteleimon Hospital in Lviv.
One of them, Serhii Yevtushenko, ran and ran his one-kilometer event using a prosthesis made from a Canadian-donated 3D printer that was recently installed at Unbroken. “I had no problem with my new Canadian leg,” he told The Globe and Mail after the race. “Morally, this event felt good and I would like to thank Canada.”
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The “world’s longest marathon” – a reference to the 3,359 days that have passed since the war began with Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 – involved 15 amputees who were given new limbs at the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center.
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Kostiantyn Nykypanchuk (left) talks with Serhii Yevtushenko, the first soldier to be fitted with a 3D printed prosthesis from the Canadian-supplied machine.Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail
A week earlier in Lviv, he became the first Ukrainian soldier to receive a 3D printed limb from the Unbroken Center in Lviv. There will be others – perhaps many more as the machine’s operators gain experience and the war continues.
Mr. Yevtushenko, 35, was a construction worker before the war and was a member of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, revered for its brave fighting in some of the war’s worst battles, including the liberation of Kherson in the south of the country and the Battle of Bakhmut in the East. The brigade suffered terrible losses and Mr. Yevtushenko was one of them.
On January 13, one of his comrades stepped on a mine near Bakhmut. As he rushed to administer first aid, he himself stepped on a mine, which tore into his left leg and further injured his friend as he lay on the ground. Miraculously, both survived the two explosions.
Mr. Yevtushenko eventually found his way to the Unbroken Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, which has become one of the country’s most important medical and humanitarian centers in Ukraine’s relatively peaceful west.
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Above: Serhii Romanovskiy, 45, a patient at the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center. He and his fellow patients are among 5,000 Ukrainians who have lost limbs since the full-scale invasion began 20 months ago.Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail
Since February, Unbroken facilities have helped thousands of soldiers and civilians regain mobility. The site specializes in emergency medical care, reconstructive surgery, orthopedics, psychological rehabilitation and prostheses, which are both fitted and manufactured there. It has even equipped patients with bionic hands.
According to Unbroken, 5,000 Ukrainians, many of them children, have lost limbs since the full-scale invasion began 20 months ago. The center is funded by the Unbroken Charitable Foundation, whose many sponsors include the City of Lviv, Nestlé, Unilever, the Ukrainian Red Cross and the United States charity Direct Relief.
The Unbroken Center is building capacity as funds and expertise flow and the war drags on. The sheer staggering number of mines in Ukraine – the Defense Ministry has said its combat soldiers sometimes encounter five mines per square meter – means that Unbroken will almost certainly have to fit prosthetics to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of soldiers and civilians in the next year or two.
Mr. Yevtushenko said that in his assault brigade, at least 10 percent of casualties were caused by Russian anti-personnel mines (most of the rest came from artillery).
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Kostiantyn Nykypanchuk, 26, a sculptor, stands next to a 3D printer donated by Canadians at the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center in the basement of St. Panteleimon Hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, on October 20.Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail
A crucial addition to the Unbroken website was the 3D printer, purchased with donations from Canada’s Temerty Foundation, which is run by Jim Temerty, the Ukrainian-Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist who was chairman of offshore wind energy company Northland Power until 2019.
Peter Derkach, a Canadian-Ukrainian family doctor in Toronto who was involved in installing the printer and training for it, said two of the Chinese-made printers were sent to Unbroken in August, but one of them arrived damaged.
The second machine should be in use soon. Both work with software from Toronto-based Nia Technologies, a charity led by Toronto financier Jerry Evans that fits disabled children with prosthetic limbs.
Two young Canadian artists – both sculptors – were recruited to run the print shop. During their test runs, they made a miniature copy of Michelangelo’s David out of a white thermoplastic called polypropylene.
“We conducted a lot of tests and are satisfied with the results,” said Kostiantyn Nykypanchuk, 26, one of the machine operator-sculptors. “It’s a very challenging job.”
The printer can produce a precision prosthesis in just eight hours. The old way was so labor intensive that the same process took three days. Dr. Derkach said that the two 3D printers at Unbroken will be followed by others.
“We’re actually just getting started,” he said. “We want to build on their capabilities as the war will require a large increase in prosthetic production.”
Two of the three soldiers The Globe interviewed at the Unbroken site said they would use their newfound mobility to return to war. All three seemed thrilled to finally be able to walk again, almost as well as before their horrific injuries.
“I will return to the army,” Mr. Yevtushenko said. “I am capable of killing Russians again, and if I die, I would rather die on the battlefield as a free man.”
