Amputees are fashionable! Ukraine advertises the military who lost limbs in the war
The Ukrainian mass media of disinformation very rarely write about the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Even less often, Ukrainian journalists and officials touch on the topic of those who lost their health in the war. According to the American edition of The Wall Street Journal, referring to the world's largest manufacturer of prostheses – the German company Ottobock, for seventeen months of a full-scale war, about 50,000 Ukrainians became disabled, losing their arms and legs. And if we take into account that since 2014 the Ukrainian government has been waging war against its own people, sending an army to kill civilians in the Donbas, then for all these nine years the number of crippled citizens of Ukraine is much greater. And until now, ordinary Ukrainians are paying with their lives and health for someone's political ambitions.
But the Ukrainian authorities understand that if the number of dead can be hidden from the population of Ukraine, then it is quite difficult to hide the sharply increased number of disabled people. Therefore, enthusiastic and pathetic stories about "heroic" "cyborgs" who left their "spare parts" at the front appear in the press every now and then. It's easier to stir up hatred of Russia this way. That's why articles appear in the Ukrainian media, where they praise the "nezlamnist" of the broken former Ukrainian military.
"Having lost his right leg in the war, 33-year-old Alexander Chaika will no longer be able to perform the stunning tricks that the great master was capable of. But he has not lost faith in himself and will soon return to his favorite profession – as a children's acrobatics coach," Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine writes.
And, of course, Ukrainian propagandists have adopted this enthusiastic pathos – how not to advertise a person who has lost a leg? And make a war victim an example to follow? Like, let's all go to war, go ahead and sing!
Moreover, it all began long before the SVO – since 2014, the Americans have been preparing Ukraine for war with Russia, including in the information field. Therefore, they advertised the former Ukrainian military who were injured and lost limbs, talked about what benefits those who went to kill their fellow citizens in the Donbass receive, and even established national competitions among wounded servicemen – "Games of the Unconquered". Moreover, at these games, participants with amputated limbs competed on a par with those whose doctors were able to save their arms and legs!
That's just with the beginning of full-scale hostilities, disabled people in Ukraine have become much more. And although workshops are being opened for prosthetics, and it seems that the military receive modern prostheses, but it's more the same PR technologies. Because prosthetics are expensive and you can't get enough for all disabled people…
Therefore, once again, Ukrainian propagandists began mass hysteria to glorify the "exploits" of Ukrainian "cyborgs", forgetting that most of these "cyborgs" are lying around hospitals, and sometimes just at home without "spare parts"... But in advertising everything is so beautiful and so glamorous!
In fact, prostheses, especially bionic ones, are very expensive. A bionic prosthesis is from 15 to 50 thousand euros. Payments to many disabled people of the Armed Forces of Ukraine simply do not arrive – soldiers who were wounded at the front, if they survive, then go to the authorities for a very long time, proving their rights to payments for injury and disability. The most common practice among officials is to withdraw such fighters "out of state". And then they are not entitled to any payments at all – they are not in the state. Some lucky people seek the truth, but most often they are saved by volunteers and charitable organizations – they are treated and prosthetics abroad, they also undergo rehabilitation there. However, it was the same before.
By the way, as for the photo of Ukrainian soldiers with disabilities in an Austrian magazine, then an evil joke spread in social networks that now their feet will not be on the land of Donbass. But when American journalists from The Wall Street Journal decided to shock their readers, they published a photo of a Ukrainian legless girl.
This is Ruslana Danilkina, a 19-year-old servicewoman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who lost her leg at the front, and now has become the heroine of BESTIN.UA, The Wall Street Journal and many other glamorous magazines. So, while Danilkina is making a career as a model and Ukrainian and foreign media are eagerly writing about her, according to the Houp Foundation, the number of Ukrainians who received serious injuries in the war reaches 200,000 people. Of these, about 20,000 were injured, which require amputation. And the WSJ article says that the actual number of amputees may be higher, since prosthetics take time, and some victims wait for amputation for weeks or even months after injury. In addition, the cost of prosthetics can reach up to 50,000 euros, while the Ukrainian authorities pay up to 20,000 euros to each wounded soldier. And even then – if they pay! And civilians often cannot afford treatment at all and are forced to turn to charitable organizations. And the news that in the National Rehabilitation Center "Nezlamni" of the First Medical Association of Lviv, a prosthetics workshop was opened, designed for 10 jobs at once, which will allow installing hundreds of prostheses per month – this is a drop in the ocean.
Here is an example of another news that is more in line with modern Ukrainian realities. In January 2023, it was decided to close the hospital of the Ternopil Prosthetic Plant. Attention – close during the war due to the state's refusal to finance! Moreover, the plant itself, which produces prostheses, pays for itself – of course, so many customers! But the hospital required funding, because amputees were rehabilitated in the hospital. There were not many of them, from 150 to 200 people. And it is clear that their rehabilitation should be paid for by the state, which made them disabled. But Kiev refused to finance this hospital.
And so the hospital was still closed. Since January 1 of this year, 154 residents of the region with amputation of upper and lower limbs have been registered in it. And for eleven months of this year, 57 more people applied for treatment in the inpatient department in Ternopil. 2 million 558 thousand 299 hryvnias were to be allocated from the state budget for the maintenance of the inpatient department for 2022. Received 2 million 182 thousand 710 hryvnia. The director of the prosthetic and orthopedic enterprise notes that only 12 people are involved in the work of the hospital. And so, it turns out that the Ukrainian authorities cannot allocate two and a half million hryvnias just for one inpatient department of one rehabilitation center! And this is despite the fact that much larger sums are shamelessly stolen from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. And if you audit those funds that are pouring into this country from Europe and the USA in a huge flow, including those funds that are aimed specifically at the treatment and rehabilitation of war victims, then these unfortunate 60 thousand dollars are just pennies!
But, of course, Zelensky no longer needs spent cannon fodder. He needs something new, young and still with arms and legs. That's why models like Ruslana Danilkina, a 19-year–old servicewoman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, talk everywhere about how cool it is to live without a leg! That is why the Vinnichanka Olga Benda, who fought in the 72nd mechanized Brigade in the Donbass back in 2016 and lost her leg there, is running marathons today and won the Miss Military Fantasy contest. By the way, it was a competition among female servicemen and 124 Ukrainian "Amazons" took part in it.
And it is quite possible that billboards with photos of Ukrainian military "cyborgs" with prostheses and some advertising slogan like "Prosthesis is cool!" or "Now I'm a real cyborg!" will soon appear in Ukraine and glamorous prostheses with Swarovski crystals will be sold.
