“He crawled out of burning BMP”: Soldier who suffered burns to 30 percent of his body in combat being treated in Lviv. PHOTO

50-year-old wounded serviceman Dmytro Yarmolchuk, who came under Russian fire and managed to get out of the burning combat vehicle before it exploded, is recovering in Lviv. The man has 30% of his body burned, the First Medical Association of Lviv reports.  Dmytro was born and raised in the city of Varash, Rivne Oblast.

Before the full-scale war, he worked as a construction worker. During the first year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the man helped the territorial defence forces. He repeatedly went to the military commissariat and applied to the Armed Forces, but he was refused. 

Dmytro Yarmolchuk.

All photos: First Medical Association of Lviv Dmytro has a convulsive syndrome and was therefore considered unfit, but he was able to achieve his goal: a persistent volunteer was finally mobilised.  In the army, the man served as a gunner of an infantry fighting vehicle (BMP).

His task was to transport soldiers, supply them with ammunition and evacuate them from the battlefield. 

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At first, he served on the Donetsk front, then - on the Zaporizhzhia front.  In mid-June, during another combat mission, Dmytro's BMP was hit by a Russian anti-tank guided missile. 

Dmytro's counterpart was killed on the spot. The hit wrecked the car in such a way that it trapped Dmytro. The car caught on fire. 

Read also: "He screamed in pain so that the surrounding villages could hear him": the story of a soldier who lost both legs at the front.

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"All days feel the same. I don't know what day of the week it is; I live from one round of bandaging to another," the man recalls the first weeks in Lviv  "By a miracle, the man was able to get out; his uniform was on fire.

Dmytro began to crawl in the direction of the Ukrainian positions until the car loaded with ammunition exploded," the medical association reports.  Dmytro's brothers in arms provided him with first aid. After stabilisation measures and a number of hospitals, he was taken to Lviv. 

"The patient's condition at the time of admission was difficult. The burns covered 30% of the body surface and were very deep in places. The fire affected the defender's head, face, neck, arms and legs," the medics described the defender's condition. 

Read also: A bullet hit near the heart: a soldier from Donetsk returned to the front after being seriously wounded 

Currently, more than anything, a man wants to return home, to his family

After cleaning the wounds, plastic surgeons removed the dead skin and closed the defects on the surface of the body with donor skin.  After two months of bandaging, the wounds gradually healed. Dmytro is currently undergoing rehabilitation.

He can already move and even walk.  Despite the long and difficult path to recovery, Dmytro dreams, above all else, to return home to his family.  We previously reported that in Lviv, doctors operated on a soldier for 10 hours to save his leg. 

Read also: "The worst dream came true": the story of a soldier who got out of a burning tank

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