Serhii Kalitsun: “I looked at my leg, expecting it to still be there. But it wasn’t”

"I didn't wait around and became an assault trooper"

Before being mobilized, Serhii was the assistant director of an air conditioning and ventilation systems company. He had worked there for seven years, climbing the ranks from installer to management. When the full-scale war began, he received several draft notices before joining the armed forces.

"When I went to update my records, they handed me a draft notice. But since I hadn't served before, they marked me down and said goodbye," Serhii recalls. "The second draft notice I got was in Kyiv, and again, they said they didn't need me. It was only after the third notice that I was finally enlisted."

Serhii joined the 95th Brigade and underwent training. Initially, he was supposed to be a bus driver. He had even received the necessary paperwork and the vehicle. However, when he arrived in the eastern city of Sloviansk, he was reassigned to the assault team.

"The vehicle unit I was supposed to join tried to get me transferred back. While the paperwork was being sorted out, I didn't wait around and became an assault trooper," Serhii says.

"Serhii, this will be your last mission"

"On July 5, the guys were supposed to come pick me up at 8 a.m. I already had all the paperwork for my transfer to the vehicle unit," says the veteran. "On July 3, our commander, who was still alive at the time, said to me, 'Serhii, this will be your last mission, and we'll wait for your transfer."

That same day, Serhii went on what would indeed be his final mission. As he says, it also marked the end of his combat and military career.

"We were in the Serebrianskyi Forest on an assault operation. A tank was firing at us. I was hit in the knee. Several of my comrades were killed. I was covered in their blood and mine. A tourniquet was placed on my right leg, and I put one on my left leg myself. Our evacuation took six hours. One guy didn't make it," Serhii recalls.

Soldiers were retreating under heavy artillery fire, which made things even worse. Serhii remained conscious the entire time, but it wasn't until they reached the stabilization point that he fully grasped what had happened.

"I looked at my leg, expecting it to still be there. But it wasn't. I took it really hard. I was expecting something completely different. I wasn't mentally prepared for this," says the veteran.

"It's like a child learning to walk again — that's what it's like for me now"

Serhii says his wife somehow sensed that something had happened. She cried and was very worried. The day after he was injured, when Serhii called her, she immediately came from the Kyiv region to the city of Dnipro and stayed by his side through all the surgeries.

After a re-amputation, Serhii was transferred to the Halychyna rehabilitation center in the Lviv region, where he befriended another veteran, Valerii Odainyk. Valerii had lost both legs and received advanced electronic prosthetics. He recommended a prosthetics program run by the Estonian government in cooperation with the BGV Charity Fund to Serhii. Serhii applied and received a positive response.

"We went to Estonia for the prosthetics. A few other guys and I who were also getting prosthetics spent three weeks there," says Serhii. "The rehabilitation center was great, and they worked quickly. The prosthetists were very professional, constantly showing us the functions of the prosthetics and explaining how everything worked."

Before going to Estonia, Serhii had a mechanical prosthetic, but now he has an electronic one. According to the veteran, the previous prosthetic wasn't entirely safe — he fell three times wearing it and developed a fear of it. With the electronic prosthetic, things are different, although he hasn't fully mastered it yet.

Before the full-scale war, Serhii had started building his house. The injury brought everything to a halt. When he got his first prosthetic, he tried going back to work but struggled with uneven surfaces. Now, the new prosthetic makes that possible.

"Now I'm doing all the construction work myself, with the help of a few hired workers. I can walk on uneven surfaces — dirt, sand, gravel. So, I'm learning to walk with the prosthetic right on the construction site," Serhii laughs.

Serhii hopes to finish the house by the end of next year and fully adjust to the prosthetic by then. He says he wants to try the swimming feature, but for now, he's focused on playing outdoor games with his kids.