CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — In a ward of a Ukrainian hospital for wounded soldiers, barely penetrated by daylight, a father talks to his wounded son for hours. Serhii Shumei, 64, never scolded Vitalii for choosing to go to war. Even now, despite the damage to his son’s brain from an exploding artillery shell, Serhii feels pride, not pity.
“I have been constantly with him in the last five months, by his side, by his side, by his side,” says Serhii, a retired ex-soldier. “I’m not going anywhere… except for a cigarette.”
Vitalii, a 34-year-old long-range anti-aircraft missile commander, was wounded in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which has become synonymous with horrific losses in the ongoing fighting for both Ukraine and Russia. It is unknown how deadly he is, because neither party says so. From the flow of wounded soldiers arriving from the front lines to hospitals like the one Vitalii occupies, it is clear that the costs are high.
Both sides have invested troops and resources to capture or defend Donbas strongholds, fighting through months of grueling and exhausting fighting until what has largely become a bloody stalemate. After setbacks elsewhere in Ukraine from President Vladimir Putin’s nearly 11-month invasion, Russia is looking for some kind of localized success in the Donbas, even if it just means taking control of one or two cities turned to rubble. Ukraine wants Russia’s advances to be as costly as possible.
The Donbas cities of Bakhmut and Soledar they have become hellscapes as a result. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described them as “completely destroyed.” strewn with corpses and craters, and “almost lifeless.”
“This is what madness looks like,” says Zelenskyy.
Vitalii was wounded on August 25 in another section of the Donbas front, at Adviivka, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Bakhmut. The shell that hit his dugout detonated other explosives. The explosion tore a crater in Vitalii’s skull that is as deep and wide as half a melon. His brain injuries were so severe that doctors doubted he would ever show signs of consciousness again.
Now, Vitalii sometimes seems aware of his surroundings. He blinks. He can swallow. But he is practically immobile.
Serhii refuses to give up on him.
“We are seeing some progress, getting back on our feet. This is my opinion,” she says.
He spends hours at Vitalii’s bedside, sharing battlefield news, reciting from books, and reading messages of support.
They are sent by grateful Ukrainians who urge Vitalii to “Hold on for life! We really need you!” and say “You are strong! You’ll manage!”
Serhii says that tears roll down Vitalii’s cheeks when he reads them to him. Other signs of improvement appeared in late December, when Vitalii started wiggling his toes, Serhii says. Vitalii also started to frown, which Serhii interprets as his son is interested in what he is reading to her.
And recently, Serhii says, another breakthrough: audible responses from Vitalii.
“I started asking him ‘Do you know who I am?’ And he answered me ‘dad’”.
Another of Vitalii’s frequent visitors is Iryna Timofeyeva, a volunteer whose creation was to collect messages of support.
“The love of the family, the attention of other people, many times helps the positive dynamics of the patient,” he says. “It is very important for the injured that he is not alone. This is how he understands that he has to fight ”.
Vitalii is, for now, alone in his ward, after other patients were transferred for rehabilitation elsewhere. But the beds around them are unlikely to remain empty for long, given the ferocity of the fighting in the Donbas. Vitalii’s hospital in Chernihiv, north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, is among those where soldiers receive long-term follow-up care after their injuries have stabilized closer to the front lines.
Serhii feels that taking care of his son is his contribution to the war effort.
“I’ll get him back on his feet. This is my dream,” she says.
Leaning into his son’s ear, he asks: “Ukraine will win, we will win, right?”
The answer is silence.
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Efrem Lukatsky in Chernihiv and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
