Am 1454. Tag der groß angelegten Invasion ist die Sonne über Kiew untergegangen. „Und denken Sie daran: Sie müssen der Welt nichts beweisen. Sie tun es für sich selbst.“ – Veteran und Amputierter Nazar Skyba, 28

Nazar Skyba joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces in April 2022, serving in the 21st Special Purpose Battalion of the Presidential Brigade, and remained in active service until December 28, 2023, when he was wounded on the Siverskyi front.

>“There was a position covered with anti-personnel mines. It was on high ground, making it strategically important to hold. Unfortunately, every time a group entered the position, someone would trigger a mine. It so happened that I stepped on one myself. As they began evacuating me to the location where we could be picked up by vehicles, we came under heavy enemy fire. Sadly, nearly the entire group was wounded, and one comrade was killed. We waited for other soldiers who could extract us. The full evacuation to the stabilization point took 28 hours,” recalls Nazar.

**After the amputation**

His first thoughts after learning about the amputation weren’t about his own pain, but about how to tell his mother. At the same time, a simple yet sobering question emerged: how would he ever hike in the mountains again?

The following weeks, Nazar recalls, were the hardest of his life. Constant physical pain, high fevers, and phantom sensations were broken only by the endless wait for painkillers just to get a few hours of sleep. Learning to walk on a prosthetic was difficult and painful – fresh stitches constantly reminded him of his injury, his leg sweated heavily, and stairs seemed nearly impossible to climb:

>“During the first month, the stairs felt like an actual Everest,” Nazar says. “In the early days, you forget that you don’t have a leg – you stand up from bed and fall. It was strange to look at myself in the mirror. I noticed that after the amputation, my arms became stronger. The phantom pain remains. I can still feel my foot, even though it’s gone, and there’s a vibration exactly where I stepped on the mine.”

Author: [https://www.instagram.com/johnniezigger/](https://www.instagram.com/johnniezigger/)

Read the article and see more photos here: [https://frontliner.ua/en/road-to-the-unconquered-a-veterans-path-to-his-first-victory/](https://frontliner.ua/en/road-to-the-unconquered-a-veterans-path-to-his-first-victory/)

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