Viktor, known to his comrades by his callsign, ‘Blacksmith’, enlisted in the military in 2022, as the long shadow of war fell across Ukraine.

He was initially in the 204th battalion, then eventually assigned to the Special Reconnaissance Unit of the 130th Battalion and spent the next 18 months engaged in some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict, at Kharkiv, Belogorivka, Bahkmut, Chasiv-yar, and New York. It was his job to ensure the safety of troops moving to, and from, the frontline.

On September 1st, 2024, as Viktor’s unit moved through the city of Chasiv Yar Donetsk on Ukraine’s eastern front, he and his team came under heavy mortar fire. Commanding his men to leave their vehicle and disperse on the forest floor to increase their chance of survival. The barrage caused only minor wounds among the group. As the mortars fell silent, and assuming that the assault was over, Viktor climbed on to the crest of the bank below which he and his unit had been sheltering. As he did so, a final mortar round whistled down from the sky and exploded at his feet.

Viktor remained conscious, but his wounds were devastating. In his own words, his legs looked like ‘confetti’. He was quickly triaged in the field and evacuated off the line in the back of a pick-up truck. He thought it odd, he recalls, that he was able to now fit, horizontally, across the truck’s rear bed. Remarkably, it took only 40 minutes for Viktor to reach hospital in Dnipro. Here, surgeons realised that his leg’s couldn’t be saved, and the decision was taken to amputate both above the knees.

The nature of Viktor’s injuries means that he would struggle to use traditional socket prostheses. Research indicates that as many as 90% of dual amputees struggle to walk properly using traditional prosthetics; many of them ultimately becoming wheelchair-bound.

On hearing of his ordeal, Viktor was contacted by Jack Frye, the head of Atlas Global Aid, a US-based charity organisation specialising in global humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Jack’s own brother, Jesse, was an amputee, and had also struggled to wear a traditional prosthetic. Seven years ago, he took the decision to undergo a procedure known as osseointegration, which allows for a prosthetic to be connected directly to an implant inside the bone, rather than requiring the residual limb to be held by a socket. By doing so, it enables normal limb alignment and more natural movement, and avoids soft tissue problems of the sort common to traditional prostheses. On hearing how Jack’s brother had benefited, Viktor knew that he wanted that same chance.

Jack and Viktor reached out to Sydney-based orthopaedic surgeon, Prof. Munjed Al Muderis, a leading specialist in the procedure. Prof. Al Muderis had supervised Jesse’s surgery in New York and, as a committed humanitarian, with decades of experience providing treatment to those affected by conflict, he was only too happy to help.

Jack and his team then set about the difficult tasks of securing permission for Viktor to travel to Sydney and raising the funds necessary for his treatment. A task made more urgent by the fact that Viktor’s wounds remained open and, with every day that passed, his risk of infection or complication grew significantly. After days of frantic phone calls and written requests, Viktor was granted approval to travel and the necessary funding was secured.

He was evacuated by ambulance from Kyiv to Warsaw in Poland, a total journey of 17 hours, where his dressings were changed and he was checked by a medical team before boarding a flight to Sydney.

Viktor is young, strong and, apart from his injuries, otherwise healthy. His spirit remains unbroken with a goal to return to his unit on the front lines in Ukraine. However he still has a long road ahead and needs further help covering the cost of the prosthetic legs and recovery.

Atlas Global Aid is partnering with charities in the USA and Australia to raise a total of $100,000 to cover the costs of Viktor’s prosthetic legs and recovery. Each country has set a goal of $50,000. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.