A before-and-after photo that went viral on social media in Ukraine shows how two Ukrainians have changed in the year since the start of the Russian invasion: one lost an eye, the other lost a leg.
The photo was published the other day by Serhii Pozniak, the man on the left in the photo, and then spread widely in other social networks used by Ukrainians.
A year difference between these photos. In the fight against Russian aggression, Serhii lost a leg, Masii lost an eye.
Source: Facebook page of Serhiy Pozniak. pic.twitter.com/gCunSatJlg
— Kateryna_Kruk (@Kateryna_Kruk) March 6, 2023
Pozniak is a fintech entrepreneur who founded several startups and was a regular guest at industry conferences held in Ukraine before the Russian invasion on February 24 last year.
A month ago, in an interview with Fortune magazine, he said that his leg was crushed after he stepped on a mine during a November battle with a group of Wagner mercenaries in a forest near the city of Kreminna, Luhansk region.
A 48-year-old Ukrainian military man was hospitalized in a Kyiv hospital, where his left leg was amputated below the knee. Immediately after the start of the war, he joined the battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine, where he served in 2014-2016.
“My life changed a lot in a few days. I know myself as a businessman, the owner of several financial companies. And on TV they say that I am one of the 3 best snipers in Ukraine,” he told Fortune journalists.
Who are the Ukrainians in the viral photo
The other man in the photo is Mustafa Nayem, a lawyer from Kyiv. When the war began, he was in the reserve, serving in 2015-2016.
Until April, he was in Kyiv, then he was sent to the east of the country to the intelligence unit.
In an interview with “Hromadsky” Nayem said that he lost an eye in early June after the car he was in ran over several mines. According to him, one of his comrades died on the spot, another was hospitalized with a very serious spinal injury.
“The first and last time I cried after the injury was when the daughter of volunteer Roman Sinitsyn told him to send me a message: ‘Tell Masa not to be sad.’ I will paint him a new eye,” he told Hromadskyi.
On the afternoon of February 24 last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi issued a decree on general mobilization after Vladimir Putin provoked the largest armed conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.
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Source: Hot News
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