Veteran Oleksiy Prytula Overcomes Injury and Finds Hope

The integration of a soldier after an injury is a topic that is very relevant now. But there are specific stories behind the topic. We talked to Oleksiy Prytula, a veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, about his path of mobilization, passing the medical examination, getting fitted for prostheses, and rehabilitation. Read the shortened version and watch the full exclusive interview about his own example, change of environment and categorical approach.

Tell us about your reaction to February 24, was it unexpected for you?

I can honestly say that I realized that everything was coming. Because I don't understand when people say that it all happened so suddenly. It had been building up for a good six months before that. So it was not news at all, for example, for my wife. Although, of course, it was strange for me to get up to the explosions. I had even been on the Internet a day or two before, watching a military video about what to do if the enemy enters the city and how to act in such a situation. Because I was very far from military affairs, I was never very interested in it.

I got up in the middle of the night, went back to bed around five o'clock, my wife hugged me, and then I heard explosions. I opened the telegram, and there was war.

How did you view the war that began in 2014?

For me, the war started in 2014, of course. I was an infantile but adult person. For me, the Maidan was a kind of rubicon in understanding what was right and wrong in this world. Until 2022, I didn't think of it as some kind of conflict, civil war, or something incomprehensible. It was a war, and people were dying there as well.

In 2014, when the National Guard was restored, I even went there and tried to apply, if I'm not mistaken, it was March. I had never thought about it before and didn't know what to do. I went to the National Guard in Odesa, they took my documents and said, "Go home, boy, we'll call you back. So I went home with a sense of duty. No one called me. My wife was pregnant. And it was all put on the brakes, but I was ashamed for all 8 years, actually. It wasn't that I woke up with this feeling, but I thought about it regularly and I knew perfectly well that this was just the beginning.

Nowadays the topic of mobilization is sensitive and is mentioned mostly in a negative context, how did it go for you?

In March, I went to the military registration and enlistment office myself, there were no more lines. I didn't do it in the first days, I had to collect my thoughts, decide what we were going to do with my family, but I realized that I had to do it. Not that I had to, but that it was the right thing to do. Maybe I tried to delay this moment, but it was my decision. I didn't receive any summonses, no one caught me-no one caught anyone back then. And it was an absolutely balanced decision. Probably the most terrible day of that period of my life. To come, climb the stairs and submit my documents. I understood perfectly well what war was. At that time, there was a fierce horror in the Kyiv region and beyond. But I was absolutely sure that my decision was right.

They let me go. I went home and just waited for the call, which came on July 4. On the 5th, I was already on my way to school.

Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

The injury occurred on September 30, 2022, what happened to you next?

I was evacuated to a stabilization center, where they operated on the remains of my leg, I still had a knee on one leg. They just surgically treated the wounds. And the same night I went to Kharkiv, where I was operated on again immediately upon arrival, and cleaned up. A few days later I was on my way to Kyiv, where I spent almost six months. I was given the remains of my knee, which was completely non-functional, and underwent six operations. For about a month, only the stitches were treated.

There were a lot of complications and infection. In short, it was a mess. In fact, it's not unprecedented, but a person gets to prosthetics and rehabilitation much faster than I did. You have to understand that this is the fall of 2022. Everything may be different now, I hope so.

My wife and I, who was with me from the very first days, had no idea what was going to happen next, how it would all go. No one can tell you anything about it. The doctors' task is to make sure you heal as quickly as possible. They can't tell you what happens next, because they don't understand. It's really lousy. As far as I understand, we should have some teams consisting of rehabilitation specialists, surgeons and prosthetists. And all this should happen right at the moment a person is admitted after being wounded, so that they have some idea of the path they will have to follow in the near future.

In my case, it was a year, almost a year and a half. We gathered information just bit by bit on the Internet, among our friends, learned about what documents we needed to have, what to ask the unit. The unit did not communicate with me at all in the first stages. I was the only one who called them. Again, I don't know how it works, but I'm sure there are units where everything is automated, without the involvement of the wounded and their families. For example, Azov or the Third Assault Brigade, where everything is done as quickly as possible. In my case, it didn't work that way back then. Perhaps everything has changed now.

That's why we collected everything, every piece of paper, and tried to get in touch. In fact, without any conflicts, usually. You ask and you get. My communication with the unit was excellent, I was lucky in this regard. I was in a Kyiv hospital until the end of March. Then I was transferred to the Lviv region, to a so-called rehabilitation center. But this is technically a civilian hospital in a small town, converted to receive wounded soldiers. It served as a hub where the wounded are accumulated, and then they go to rehabilitation and prosthetic centers.

Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

Did you realize that you could use prostheses and return to work and everyday life?

Even at the time of my injury, when I was applying tourniquets, tightening them and transferring documents from my torn pants to safer places, I already knew that I had lost my legs. But I lost only my legs, because my arms were intact, my head was intact, everything was more or less functioning. I realized that I would be able to return to my work, most likely even in a chair, if I had to. I was convinced for some reason, and I was right, that my management would help me with this. So I didn't worry about it.

How long and what was your rehabilitation like?

It seems to me that rehabilitation is something that is still ongoing, because it is a very complex process. Intensive, given the prosthetics, lasted, if I'm not mistaken, until about the beginning of August. Then in September I received another knee. I stayed there a little longer and then decided to return home. A little bit with a heavy heart actually. You know, when you are there, it's a very wonderful structure, it's perfect. There are people there who are not indifferent, it helps a lot. You are surrounded by your brothers, people who share your experience, and this also helps a lot. And you realize that you need to get back to real life, because life in a rehabilitation center is not quite complete. I realized that I would continue to be surrounded by people who were out of context. I wasn't really wrong about that. I wanted to be wrong, but I was not.

As of January 1, 2025, the MSEC was liquidated, but before that, there were a number of negative appeals and public discussions about the passage of the VLC and MSEC. How was it in your case?

Everything was fine for me. When I had already completed the active stage of prosthetics and rehabilitation, I contacted the unit. I asked for a referral to undergo a military medical examination at the place of my stay, and they sent me a piece of paper without any questions. I came to the place where the VLC was held in Lviv. I waited for the results for about a week and a half. There were nuances of everyday life, the human factor in some offices, not very nice specialists, but this can be quite subjective. Have I heard about alternative options for passing the VLC? Yes, of course, there are a lot of options. But in my case, it was exactly like this.

I returned to Odesa, received a referral to the MSEC from my family doctor. And in fact, I passed the MSEC in a few hours just as quickly, again, given my injury. Who can say what? But I saw guys sitting right in the narrow corridors. Have you been to the MSEK in Odesa, where it was? It's just a horror, just a fucking horror.

You can't make an appointment. You have to arrive 40 minutes before the opening, there is already a queue, everything is in a mess. It's not clear where to go at all. When you ask for directions, you hear irritation. I really don't like this, I can also react aggressively and irritated as quickly as possible. But the military are served on the second floor, and of course there is no elevator. It's not a toilet, it's a pigsty. When I asked what about a person who came in a wheelchair, I was told that doctors come downstairs and serve them. Where? In the fucking corridor? What rudeness, of course. Rudeness, rudeness, rudeness, a lot of rudeness from all sides. The problem with this structure is real.

But I haven't been saying that the fish is rotting from the head for a long time. Because I see that for me the bigger problem is ordinary people. Those who are called ordinary little people. And you shouldn't blame the big bosses for that, because that's not how it works.

Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

Your life and surroundings have changed dramatically, but what do you see in Odesa?

I see a regression. I don't know if you do. It's not just Odesa, in fact, the problem is everywhere. I saw people who were starting to speak Ukrainian, I saw everyone united around a common goal. Now, in many ways, the situation in society is much worse than it was in 2022.

Some people simply decided that they could not influence anything. Some of those who showed an active civic position fled abroad and are now broadcasting the most harmful things.

I'm used to being responsible for myself, and I think this is something that everyone needs to learn. I made a lot of mistakes in my life. I was a rather infantile person for a long period of time. I was a Ukraine-centered boy, but I did nothing to spread my views around me.

When 2022 came, I realized that I had to be an example. I thought that I was just one of the first people in my inner circle at that time to do the same. My whole circle was in Romania, Bulgaria for all the fucking years. When I came to the military enlistment office, I thought I was just the first among my friends that they needed time. But I was the only one left.

We changed a lot in our lives, radically switched to Ukrainian. I think it's a small but very important step. I am now openly broadcasting what I should have been doing many years before. We must not wait for someone to do something for us. If we don't do anything about it, nothing will ever change in this world.

Марія Литянська