Mykola Serhiienko: “I dream of returning to my profession”

Mykola is from Irpin, near Kyiv. He and his wife have two children and are now grandparents. His son is in the military, having served under contract.

"The war caught my son in the city of Chernihiv, so he's been serving since the first days of the war. Later, he transferred to the Bureviy Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard, and now he's in the East," Mykola shares.

Mykola and his family were awakened by explosions on the morning of February 24. He and his wife stayed in Irpin until a shell landed in their yard.

"I wanted to go to the military recruitment office right away, but my wife was against it," says Mykola. "Then a Russian shell destroyed our car. That's when we decided to leave and stay with friends outside the city for a while. But by March 9, I returned to Irpin with volunteers to get our cat."

The family later moved to the western city of Lviv, where Mykola volunteered for military service. By March 19, he had started his duty:

"I was immediately assigned to a security unit, guarding water facilities near Lviv. Throughout the summer, we trained at the training grounds. We had excellent instructors — military personnel from the UK, the US, and New Zealand. We had translators, but even without knowing the language, we managed to communicate and understand each other," says Mykola.

After completing his training, Mykola transferred to the 24th Mechanized Brigade and was sent to the eastern Donetsk region. As a sergeant, he became a squad leader.

"Our job was to take control of positions, hold them, and advance, just like infantry does. I had eight brave guys under my command," says the veteran.

"I've stayed in seven hospitals"

On December 1, during an assault on the village of Kurdiumivka, Mykola was wounded. He recalls that a major operation was planned, but things didn't go as expected:

"We were being pushed out of the village. We were the last ones to leave, covering the other group. That's when artillery hit us, and I got wounded."

Mykola says he was lucky that his comrades quickly helped him, and a vehicle promptly arrived to evacuate him and others injured. He recalls:

"The blow was on my leg — it was almost torn off. I recall them placing it on top of me when they loaded me into the vehicle. Later, they fitted me with an Ilizarov apparatus at the stabilization point and took me to Dnipro."

His first thought was, "It's all over." "For four months, I couldn't get up at all," says the veteran. "I had 12 surgeries. Because of gangrene, they amputated my left leg below the knee in a hospital in Khmelnytskyi, and in Kyiv, they performed another amputation above the knee. I was transferred from hospital to hospital — I counted seven."

Eventually, his wife got him into the military hospital in Irpin, where he has been undergoing treatment and rehabilitation for the past six months.

"Now I work out four times a week"

Mykola received his first mechanical prosthetic in Kyiv, but it didn't work out for him:

"I had issues with the socket — it wouldn't stay in place and kept falling off. The knee joint was also problematic. I had a VGK prosthetic and went through two before finding one that fits properly. Only then could I start walking."

The whole time, Mykola was looking for a more comfortable prosthetic. His comrades, who had received more advanced ones in Estonia, recommended he apply for one there.

"I wrote a letter saying I wanted to get a new prosthetic. They called me and asked, 'Are you ready to get fitted for prosthetics in late May?' I replied I was, and I started getting ready," he recounts.

The program provided Mykola and a comrade, who was also headed for prosthetic treatment, a bus to Estonia. A week later, two more soldiers from Ukraine joined them, and all four were fitted with prosthetics.

The veteran is deeply grateful to his prosthetist in Estonia, who completed the fitting in three weeks, including adjusting the socket:

"My prosthetist's name was Madis. He fought in Iraq and has a double amputation below the knee, so he walks on prosthetics, too. First, he made a test socket out of glass, and a week later, I had my permanent socket. After that, I stood up right away."

Comparing the mechanical prosthetic to the new bionic Genium X3, Mykola notes that he hasn't fallen once because of the new one. "The Genium X3 has fall protection," says the veteran. "With the mechanical one, you have to step correctly, constantly controlling your balance, stepping on the heel first, pressing down, shifting weight to the toe, and only then the joint works and bends. With this one, I just walk without even thinking about it."

The new prosthetic even comes with a smartphone app that allows Mykola to switch modes:

"If I need a certain mode, I go into the app and select running, walking, sitting, volleyball, or cycling. I love the 'volleyball' mode — it cushions the leg so well that I can even jog a little. Though I can't run fully on the prosthetic yet," Mykola says.

The veteran puts on his new prosthetic each morning and takes it off at bedtime, staying active all day. As part of his rehabilitation, he trains in his Genium X3 and goes to the gym with other veterans.

Mykola is cautious when talking about the future. For now, his main goal is to get back to work and stay in good physical shape:

"I'll try to return to my profession. Even though I have a good knee joint on the prosthetic, it's still uncomfortable to kneel or squat. Right now, I'm working on repairs in my apartment — it's going slowly, but it's coming along. No matter how good the prosthetic is, you have to keep exercising. Now I work out four times a week."