Ex-Soldier, 75, Who Lost Legs Joins Ukraine Resistance To Russia Invasion

More than half a century after gangrene claimed his legs up to his hips and all of his fingers, Hryhoriy Yanchenko joined the Ukrainian resistance to Russia's invasion.

More than half a century after gangrene appeared on his legs to his hips and all his fingers, Hryhori Yanchenko joined the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion.

Now 75, he wore the blue and sky-striped shirt-

The blue hat of the Soviet paratrooper unit in which he served drove his electric chariot through the occupied southern city of Kherson to collect donations.

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He said that with a speaker next to him playing the national anthem of Ukraine, he has collected more than 600,000 hryvnias ($16,

400) more than six months before fleeing in September to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhia.

He said the money - including some inadvertently donated by Russian soldiers -

It was used by a Ukrainian group to buy sniper scopes, rifle accessories, clothing and vehicles to transport Ukrainian troops to the front lines.

"Sometimes I'd meet goblins (the Russians) who put money in my bucket," he said with a smirk that deepened the wrinkles around his eyes. "Maybe it was because I'm disabled."

"I will start (every morning) on ​​my street," Yanchenko told Reuters at the office of the Zaporizhzhya relief organization, which has taken care of him since he fled Kherson. "You get out

But you don't know if you'll come home."

Yanchenko, who served in the Soviet Airborne Forces from 1966 to 1969, has been trying to support Ukrainian soldiers since Russian-backed separatists seized parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

First, he and his friends organized a useful concert. Then they began collecting food, clothing, and other supplies.

Galina Goncharenko, founder of the Soldiers' Shelter relief group in Zaporizhzhya who has collaborated with Yanchenko since 2015, said he called her in March to ask if he could send donations to her from Kherson.

Despite the risks, Yanchenko also joined the street protests against the Russian occupation,

Some were dispersed with warning shots.

On Ukrainian Independence Day on August 24, he walked out with a Ukrainian flag in his carriage basket and wore an embroidered Ukrainian shirt that he wore as a talisman against evil.

Journey to safety

When Yanchenko returned home, the neighbors told him that he had been moved,

He decided it was time to flee Kherson, his home for 57 years, when he was confronted by an FSB officer and a friend on the street.

"He said, Grandfather, you are rolling for your last days," recalls Yanchenko.

His friend hid him for three days before driving him and his wheelchair to the docks of Kherson before-

Dawn crossing of the Dnieper River.

"He put me on a boat," said Yanchenko. “On the other hand… they quickly put me in the minivan.”

The children huddled in the back were also evacuated from Kherson until the truck reached the last Russian checkpoint before the Ukrainian-controlled territory.

A Russian soldier found a problem with the driver's documents and wrote on the windshield with a red sign "Coming home."

This is where I felt like everything was falling apart because if I go home, that's it. I'm gone, said Yanchenko.

They would arrest me."

But the driver persuaded another Russian soldier to let the vehicle pass, and Yanchenko,

His wife, whose wife died aged 51 in 2020, is now sitting in his wheelchair outside the Zaporizhzhia mall, a portable megaphone playing patriotic songs while collecting more donations.

BY
ProBuzzFeed