HUG FOR HEROES

Before the war, Oleksandr Tereshchenko was a cameraman, a husband, and a father living an ordinary life. When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, he volunteered.

During the defense of Donetsk Airport, an enemy grenade landed among his unit. He grabbed it and covered it with his body — and didn’t release it in time. He lost both hands and eyesight partially but saved four lives. What followed was a long relearning: how to live independently, how to do ordinary things in entirely new ways.

Rather than withdraw, Oleksandr dedicated himself to others. He founded an NGO supporting veterans adjusting to life after vision loss and limb amputation. As a civic activist and later Deputy Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, he advocated for veterans’ rights at the highest levels.

His message to others living with amputation is straightforward: “I did it - so can you!” Oleksandr’s story is a reminder that even after the deepest rupture, a person can remain a source of strength for others.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Pavlo was a third-year dental student. He joined the 12th Special Purpose Brigade “Azov” in September 2024.

During an evacuation of his fellow soldiers, a drone drop tore through his leg. For seventeen hours he held his position under continuous shelling. By the time help reached him, he already knew the limb could not be saved.

Through rehabilitation, his biggest motivation was to walk again. Sport had shaped him since childhood — taekwondo, football, boxing, wrestling — and now it carried him back.

For Pavlo, sports and loved ones weren’t part of recovery but recovery itself.

Before the war, the mountains were his other passion — he had hiked the Carpathians three times. Now he is preparing for his first winter ascent on a prosthetic.

Today, Pavlo returned to service in a new capacity. He contributes to Azov’s media work and fundraising, using his voice and his story to support the brothers and sisters in arms still holding the line.

Oleh was born and raised in Chortkiv, where he followed his father onto the railways. For thirty-eight years, he worked as a locomotive engineer — a steady life, a steady trade.

He was already retired when Russia’s full-scale invasion began. In the first days of the war, he went to the front as a volunteer. He lost both legs. A brother-in-arms saved his life by applying tourniquets on the ground.

His recovery has been long. Oleh spent six months in the United States learning to walk on prosthetics, followed by further rehabilitation in Ukraine.

Throughout this journey, his wife Natalia has been by his side and became his constant support — helping him through recovery and adapting to a new reality. They have been married for 36 years and have two children together.

Oleh and Natalia joined the Hug for Heroes program together. Their story reflects something essential: recovery is not an individual process. It is shared — between partners, within families, and over time, as people rebuild their lives after trauma.

Before the full-scale war, Mykola worked in theatre and film, building a life in the arts together with his wife Kateryna. In 2022, he joined Ukraine’s Defense Forces, first serving in the National Guard and later in the Azov Brigade as a drone pilot.

In March 2024, during a combat mission near the Serebrianskyi forest in Luhansk region, a Russian guided bomb struck Mykola’s position. For hours, he remained trapped beneath the ruins while his brothers-in-arms tried to reach him under fire. That day, he lost two of his comrades and both of his legs above the knee.

Step by step, through pain, rehabilitation, and prosthetics, Mykola kept moving forward. He joined the Hug for Heroes program together with his wife Kateryna.

Today, Mykola continues to turn his experience into action. Together with his wife, he supports fundraising initiatives for National Guard of Ukraine and advocates for accessibility and inclusion in Ukraine. Within the brigade, he also helped create “Integration” — a unit focused on helping wounded soldiers and those released from Russian captivity return to service.

At the same time, Mykola has become a public voice for Ukrainian defenders still held in Russian captivity, speaking about the defenders of Mariupol on international stages, including the Venice Film Festival. Alongside everything else, he returned to the stage — continuing his work as an actor in Kyiv.

Before the full-scale invasion, Viktor Drachuk lived an active life. In spring 2023, he joined Ukraine’s Armed Forces and served in the 95th Air Assault Brigade.

That autumn, during combat in the Donetsk region, an FPV drone struck his position. Viktor lost both legs. After dozens of surgeries across Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Lviv, he began rehabilitation and was fitted with prosthetics.

Step by step, Viktor rebuilt his daily life and found a new purpose within it. He threw himself into sports: para ice hockey, kayaking, climbing, archery, and wrestling.

In time, he realised he wanted to help other veterans fight a different battle - reintegration into civilian life. Through the Hug for Heroes pilot project in Ukraine, he met Viktoriia, an athlete, instructor, and his future wife. Together they competed in a national water tourism championship, completing an 18 km route, earned the rank of candidate master of sport, and descended into the longest gypsum cave in Europe. Recently, their son Danylo was born - a new chapter in a story of love and rebuilding.

Today, Viktor leads the Veteran Development Center at Lviv State University of Physical Culture, supporting veterans through sports, education, and professional development.

From a young age, Iurii was drawn to sports. His life took many turns — from working as a milling machine operator to a 20-year career at sea — before he eventually returned home to support his family.

With the start of the full-scale invasion, Iurii volunteered to defend Ukraine. He served first near the Belarusian border and later fought near Kupiansk on the Kharkiv front, where he was wounded and lost a leg.

It was on that border posting, before the wound, that Iurii met Ksenia, a volunteer psychologist visiting the military unit. They fell in love and married.

Through the injury, the surgeries, the rehabilitation, Ksenia became his steadiest support — the woman who had first arrived to listen to soldiers now built a life with one.

After the Hugs for Heroes program, Iurii rediscovered for himself buhurt — a group combat with blunted weapons that he had loved since childhood. At the same club, “Nestrymni,” he also took up archery.

Today he trains actively and competes — recently representing Zhytomyr region at the national veterans’ competition “Northern Outpost” in Chernihiv.

Radyslav was nineteen when Russia’s full-scale invasion began. He volunteered in the first days of the war, and despite his age and lack of combat experience, made it into the Azov Brigade — one of Ukraine’s most demanding units. His father was already serving at the front.

In October 2023, during a combat task, a mortar shell exploded beside him. At twenty-one, Radyslav lost both legs.

After the injury, Radyslav began doing the things he had put off before the war. He has thrown himself into sports, including diving, and dreams of climbing Hoverla, Ukraine’s highest peak, on his own.

Every day, he says, is another chance to prove to himself that he is still strong — and perhaps to remind someone else that life does not end with injury. It continues.

Radyslav joined the Hug for Heroes program as part of his recovery journey. After Hugs for Heroes, he found a way to keep serving — this time off the battlefield.

He joined the National Academy of Internal Affairs, where he works in patriotic education for cadets and students and helps develop veteran sport.

Before the war, Andrii lived a steady civilian life, working at a warehouse in Zaporizhzhia. He had never served in the military, but when Russia’s full-scale invasion came - he left ordinary life behind and went to the front as a volunteer.

In 2024, he was wounded. The injury took more than his body — by his own account, something in him closed. He came home withdrawn, carrying a weight that words could not quite reach.

At the Hug for Heroes program he found something he had not expected: equality.

Every man there had walked through the same fire, and in that brotherhood the silence he had been carrying began to loosen.

After the program Andrii joined “Sich,” the amputee football team in Zaporizhzhia, and stepped onto the field again. The journey to Sweden gave him confidence on his prosthetic, and now he is preparing for the next one — to France.

Last year Andrii was awarded the medal “For Military Service to Ukraine” by the President of Ukraine.

Pavlo’s life had been shaped around medicine long before the war. He grew up in Bila Tserkva, studied at the local medical college, worked as a paramedic on an ambulance crew, and by 2020 was teaching soldiers how to save each other in the field.

When the full-scale invasion began, he was among the first to volunteer. For three years he defended Donetsk and Kherson regions with the 72nd Mechanized Brigade “Black Zaporozhians,” serving as a senior combat medic.

In 2023, near Vuhledar, while evacuating wounded brothers-in-arms, Pavlo stepped on a mine.

He gave himself first aid on the ground but lost a third of his right lower leg. After rehabilitation, he returned to his unit as a drone strike mechanic.

Pavlo jokes that he is now a pirate, with what he calls his “steel leg.” The humor sits on top of something serious: he runs, cycles, competes in triathlons, recently finished a half-marathon.

After the Hug for Heroes program, Pavlo started his studies at Lviv’s Danylo Halytsky National Medical University. He wants to become a surgeon and to return to people their hope.

Before the war, Vasyl lived a life in motion. He served his term in the Naval Forces, worked as a welder in Europe, and gave his free time to the outdoors — fishing, hiking, the gym, ski racing in winter. He was a man who needed his body to move.

In 2023, he joined the 46th Separate Airmobile Brigade as a tank gunner. On the outskirts of Mariinka, during defensive operations, he was wounded by artillery fire.

During rehabilitation, he carried one stubborn will — to stand on prosthetics as soon as possible, to live independently again, to take his own life back into his own hands.

The Hug for Heroes program gave that drive what it had been missing — people. In Sweden, Vasyl met other veterans who pulled him deeper into sport and volunteer work. Those friendships followed him home.

Today he plays for “Unbroken,” a para ice hockey team in Lviv. His life is active again — sport, swimming, volunteering.

Vasyl admits his dream is twofold and inseparable — to live in a Ukraine that has won the war and is flourishing, and to compete one day at the Paralympic Games.

Yevhenii has been a soldier almost his whole adult life. After high school, he chose the army, and has served since 2015 — most recently as senior sergeant of an engineering platoon and acting commander of an engineer-sapper platoon.

In 2023, near Verbove in the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevhenii was wounded in combat. For fifteen hours, he waited on the field with tourniquets in place. He lost his right leg above the knee.

During rehabilitation, the greatest source of strength for Yevhenii was the support of his wife, family, and friends. Step by step, he learned to live again on new terms.

In 2024, he became the first veteran in Ukraine to pass the driving examination adapted for people with disabilities — a personal milestone that opened a road others will now travel.

Yevhenii joined the Hug for Heroes program together with his wife. For him, one of the most valuable parts of the experience was the strength that comes from being among others who have walked the same road. Recovery, he came to see, is not something done alone — it is built between people.

Today, Yevhenii continues to serve in the National Guard of Ukraine.

Before the war, Yevhenii worked in forest sanitation and played guitar in a rock band. In 2022, he joined Ukraine’s Armed Forces and served as a grenadier in the 81st Separate Airmobile Brigade.

In March 2023, during an assault operation, he stepped on a mine while evacuating a wounded brother-in-arms. He lost both of his legs on the spot.

After the injury, staying active became essential for both his physical and mental recovery. Training and rehabilitation helped him regain strength and keep moving forward through one of the hardest periods of his life.

Through the Hug for Heroes pilot program in Ukraine, Yevhenii met Anna. She worked there as a trainer and instructor, and they met during one of the rafting activities shortly after his injury. Their relationship became part of the journey of recovery itself — built through support, movement, and learning how to move forward together.

In time, Yevhenii returned to service. He went back to his brigade, then transferred to a training and instructor role in another unit. Today, he lives in Lviv and works in a restaurant. His greatest dream is to learn to run and jump on prosthetics, and to return to service in his original brigade.