Berättelse 8
Andrii
- Veteran of the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade
- Now a player on “Sich,” Zaporizhzhia’s amputee football team
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 He came home withdrawn, carrying a weight that words could not quite reach.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.
