Ex-Soldier, 75, Who Lost Legs Joins Ukraine Resistance To Russia Invasion
NDTV
Russia-Ukraine war: Yanchenko, who served in the Soviet airborne forces from 1966-1969, has been trying to support Ukrainian soldiers since Russia-backed separatists seized parts of east Ukraine in 2014.
More than half a century after gangrene claimed his legs up to his hips and all of his fingers, Hryhoriy Yanchenko joined the Ukrainian resistance to Russia's invasion.
Now 75, he put on the blue-striped jersey and sky-blue beret of the Soviet paratroop unit in which he served and drove his electric mobility cart through the occupied southern city of Kherson collecting donations.
He said that, with a speaker at his side playing Ukraine's national anthem, he collected more than 600,000 hryvnias ($16,400) over six months before fleeing in September to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia.
The cash - including some inadvertently donated by Russian soldiers - has been used by a Ukrainian group to buy sniper scopes, rifle accessories, clothing and vehicles to ferry Ukrainian troops to frontlines, he said.
