Amputation is the leading cause of disability among veterans of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, accounting for 54 percent of disability assessments, according to Russia's Ministry of Labour. In 80 percent of those cases, veterans lost a leg rather than an arm, the ministry said.
The news outlet Lenta.ru interviewed veterans who lost limbs in the fighting and have since rebuilt their lives on prosthetics, some returning to construction work, one to a fitness club, and another training to become a prosthetist.
A father's rescue under fire
Timur Kuserbaev, 24, from Ufa, said he had just finished a fire safety course and enrolled at Ufa University when he was called up during Russia's partial mobilisation. He served as an artillery gun commander and deputy platoon commander for two years without a serious wound, he said.
On his last mission, his unit held a position for a week instead of the planned two days, running short of food and water, he said. While withdrawing under drone surveillance, Kuserbaev stepped on a landmine and lost his foot. He waited 15 hours for evacuation, using a tourniquet and smoking cigarettes to stay conscious, he said.
His father, 46, had signed a military contract a year after Kuserbaev specifically to serve alongside him, he said. When his father learned of the injury, he crawled to the dugout and then carried Kuserbaev five kilometers on his back through drone strikes and minefields, shielding him with his own body each time a drone approached. Medics who had spoken to Kuserbaev by radio said they had assumed he was already dead, given how rarely soldiers with severed limbs survive, he said.
Kuserbaev was operated on three days later in Rostov-on-Don. He began exercising his stump five days into treatment, fitted a prosthesis after three months and was walking normally after five, he said. He has since transferred to a sociology degree and works at the prosthetics company Ortho-Innovations, helping other veterans through rehabilitation. His father served another six months before being discharged after a non-critical injury and now has diabetes, Kuserbaev said.
Testing prosthetics in the Altai mountains
In late August, 18 people, including seven veterans and 11 people with amputations, took part in the first "Route of Strength" expedition in the Altai region, walking 10 kilometers along rocky trails into the Chulyshman Valley to the Kurkure waterfall. Organisers wanted to see how leg prosthetics, both imported and Russian-made, performed on wet rock and steep terrain rather than in a clinic. All the devices held up, including the Russian-made components, organisers said. The expedition was arranged by the All Together charitable fund, the company Ortho-Innovations and the Metiz industrial group, which plan to make it an annual event.
Choosing amputation over more pain
Alexei Krupin, 35, a builder from Kirov, volunteered for the military in 2024, following his father, who fought in Afghanistan, and his brothers, who had also served. He trained as a tank crew mechanic and deployed to the front in November 2024. His unit received awards, including the Order for Courage for Krupin, after a successful operation the following month to dislodge an enemy position, he said.
Krupin said he was hit in a drone strike in April 2025 while manning the top of his tank, shielding three soldiers behind him. His leg was crushed, and doctors in Makiivka told him it could be pinned back together but would likely need amputating anyway, so he asked for immediate amputation, he said.
He fitted a temporary prosthesis in Samara and adapted quickly, he said, but struggled later with a poorly fitted socket from a local prosthetist in Kirov until a specialist from Krasnodar corrected it. He is still waiting on applications for a sports prosthesis and bathroom adaptations, he said; a separate request for adaptive clothing was only fulfilled after he complained publicly on social media.
Krupin continues to work in construction, fitting bathrooms and cladding houses. He said phantom pain lasted about two weeks after the amputation and that he refused strong painkillers to avoid becoming dependent on them.
Rejected from returning to service
Pavel Gondyukhin, 27, from the Samara region, had served in the military for nine years, working as a sniper after starting out as an infantry fighting vehicle gunner, he said. He lost his leg to a landmine on October 2, 2024, a day after submitting paperwork for a promotion, while carrying a wounded comrade to safety, he said.
Gondyukhin fitted a prosthesis in March 2025 and was walking without a cane within three to four weeks, he said. He spent a year and a half trying to return to active service, applying to his old brigade, the Africa Corps and other units, but was turned down everywhere because of his medical discharge, he said.
He now lives with his parents, works security shifts at a nightclub and studies youth policy management at Samara State University of Economics. He took fourth place in Russia's national modern sword-fighting championship and won two cups in athletics at a 2025 sports competition, he said.
"Depression never came"
Eduard Syromyatnikov, 42, a fitness trainer from the Moscow region originally from Donetsk, commanded a drone platoon after volunteering in 2022. He lost his leg to a "petal" landmine in April 2025 while retreating from a drone strike, he said.
Doctors told him recovery would take six months to a year, but he returned to the gym after three months and was walking confidently within six, he said. He now uses a Russian-made carbon-fibre "Metiz" foot prosthesis and works as a brand ambassador for the manufacturer while training clients at his old club.
From patient to prosthetist
Pavel Vasyushko, 23, from the Tyumen region, served as a combat engineer and suffered three serious injuries from drone strikes over one year of service, he said. The third strike damaged an artery below his knee, and doctors in St. Petersburg later determined the leg could not be saved.
Vasyushko initially resisted amputation but agreed after deciding it was better to learn to walk on a prosthesis than use a wheelchair for life, he said. He was fitted with a prosthesis about six weeks after the operation and now uses a microprocessor-controlled electric knee. After bonding with his own prosthetist, he enrolled at a St. Petersburg college to train as a prosthetics technician and now works part-time at a prosthetics workshop, where he has already built his own most recent prosthesis, he said.
Vasyushko's father also went to fight in Ukraine around the same time as his son and served nearby, but was reported missing and has since been officially declared dead, Vasyushko said.
