5 gunshot and hundreds of shrapnel wounds: Bakhmut defender being treated in Ivano-Frankivsk
Doctors are fighting for the life of a Kharkiv resident who sustained severe injuries during hostilities in Bakhmut. The man suffered five gunshot wounds and had over 200 pieces of shrapnel stuck in his arms and legs. Stanislav, 51, who volunteered to join the Ukrainian army, is undergoing treatment at the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Clinical Hospital.
Stanislav sustained severe injuries - including a penetrating chest wound and a hip torn in a grenade explosion - in late January 2023. In early February, he had his leg amputated below the knee at the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Clinical Hospital.
Stanislav at the hospitalPhoto: Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Clinical Hospital
During peacetime, Stanislav was a cement mixer driver. It was his second time volunteering to fight in the Ukrainian army to defend the country from Russia's aggression.
"I ended up in the National Guard, the 4th Battalion named after Colonel Petro Bolbochan. I sustained an injury during a mop-up operation. Our unit was supposed to capture a privately owned building and hold it to prevent the occupiers from bypassing another brigade and approaching us from the rear," Stanislav said.
He and his comrades-in-arms were ambushed when they arrived at the designated position. Russian occupation forces deployed howitzers to fire at Stanislav and his comrades for an hour and a half, while taking up their new positions.
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"By the end, half of our guys had been killed, and I managed to survive till the morning.
Bullets spare no one, but I thought they somehow spared me. I managed to [kill] two [Russian soldiers] but the third one outwit me, like we were in a video game: he fell to the ground and shot me in the leg," Stanislav explained.
Stanislav and his wifePhoto: Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Clinical Hospital
Stanislav - bleeding and in pain - managed to barricade one of the walls in the building, which saved him from being captured. Russian occupation troops threw grenades at him instead, and he fired right back at them.
Stanislav said that he must be "not very sensitive to pain". "I heard a bullet go in and go out. I was glad that my arm was still working," Stanislav said. "But when my leg got shot and I heard my bones break, I thought that would be the end of me."
He admitted that he survived because of his fury and his knowledge of survival tactics, which he was taught back in 2015 by Canadian instructors: to curl up and cover his vital organs with his hands. "It worked: I got four wounds in my arms, but I survived," Stanislav said. He added that he didn't want to either freeze or burn to death.
He recalled how he used his gun to prop himself up and made his way to another room in the building where he was. He held out for as long as he could, and started thinking about taking his own life, but eventually was able to use his radio to call for help. When asked whether he regrets volunteering to fight again, Stanislav jokes, saying he could have made use of his leg a while longer.
"Here in the hospital I'm starting to lose it a bit - when I can't get up or my wife has to feed me. I don't know what might come next... But I would like to live a while longer and help my kids figure their lives out," Stanislav said.
His son is 25 and his daughter is 14. Stanislav is currently undergoing treatment. His wife Tetiana is by his side.
His doctors say that his condition is stable.
Previously: Serhii "Maestro", a medic from Volunteer Mobile Hospital No.1 was killed in Zhytomyr Oblast in December 2022, while rescuing his daughter from a fire.
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