Put on your feet: how a Russian-speaking resident of Florida moved to New York to make prostheses for the Ukrainian military

New York is still with those who are trying to resist nuclear blackmail and rocket attacks. And to stand in the literal sense. Between 8000 and 10 Ukrainians became disabled after the Russian invasion, according to Limbs for Life. Voice of America.

The prosthesis is a very scarce and expensive item of humanitarian medical assistance. The cheapest one costs 3000, a very good one costs 100. And we also need specialists who will put them on their feet.

This war for Ukrainian soldiers is now going on in New York, led by Alexander Rubtsov, founder of the Kind deeds charity.

“There were probably 70 people at the airport. The Americans asked: “Is Zelensky arriving?” There were a lot of people, all in Ukrainian symbols. With flags, with posters, with flowers - this is a very touching moment. The kids almost cried. That is, they flew and did not know that they would be met like that. Ukraine is just a monolith, a powerful monolith,” Alexander recalls.

Oleksandr Rubtsov is a Ukrainian living in Miami. But now he is in New York working on a new project for prosthetics for Ukrainian soldiers.

So far, two guys have been brought here: Viktor Nesterenko is only 23 years old, Domaransky Anton is 35 years old.

“When I got the first wound, after anesthesia, I immediately got out of bed and said that I was ready to go back. I recovered, came back and got hurt again. Accepted it right away. I realized that I don’t have a leg, but the main thing is that I’m alive, ”says Viktor.

“And I was angry that I could not continue further, that I was dropping out of the ranks. But I'm going to go back. I want to keep fighting. This is not because of the desire to fight, but because of the desire to fight for our existence. For the existence of Ukrainians,” explains Anton.

On the subject: A girl from Ukraine who lost her arm due to a wound received the lightest high-tech prosthesis in the world in New York

It was difficult to take the guys out of Ukraine. Irina Mikichak, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Health, helped. Alexander found her on Facebook.

“I wrote to the Deputy Minister on Facebook - she answered me and soon helped the project. Tatyana Ostashchenko from the Ministry of Defense also helped a lot. Today we have two doctors: one from Armenia, one from Kharkov. We have already been approached by two American doctors who are ready to help.”

Now Alexandra is focused on this project. He has two children and a wife who stayed in Miami. And there is nowhere to live in New York, although you need to stay here for at least a month. Well, a hotel can cost 300-500 dollars a day.

“These are huge sums. I can install a prosthesis for this money. All my thoughts are busy buying spare parts, prostheses. There is a very tough optimization of all processes. You can take a hotel for guys. But we found people with a good heart who took us for free. And we saved a lot of money,” says the Ukrainian.

The Ukrainian diaspora in New York helps the project a lot. Tickets were bought for the guys for the miles that they were given. They are fed in a restaurant or at the house where they live. And they even provided transport with a driver to take them to the doctors.

This is Alexander's second project to help Ukraine. The first was on the second day of the war. He and his friends flew to Krakow and evacuated people there.

“We rented large buses in Ukraine with 49 seats. And they took people out for 2 months. After Krakow, I can morally free myself, because we took out a lot of people. It was possible to calm down on this. But there is a desire, which means there is time, - Alexander believes. “If you are an active Ukrainian and can afford it, then you have to do it.”