After one year of fighting, no one holds any illusions about the war in Ukraine.
Invoking the military confrontations of previous centuries, the human toll in terms of lives lost – and lives altered – is enormous.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine has released accurate casualty figures, but hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or injured in this conflict.
People like Captain Maks Horobets.
A sapper in Ukraine’s 808 Support Regiment, he now sports civilian clothes as he negotiates the streets of Ireland’s largest city.
His cotton baseball cap offers anonymity but does not cover his wounds.
Warning: A graphic image of facial injuries appears in the article below.
The 30-year-old was seriously injured last March when shrapnel from a Russian artillery shell hit him in the face.
He was moved from one hospital to another in Ukraine, before the European Union organised specialist treatment at a facility in Dublin.
“They said they’d help me get back the face that I had before,” he said. “Everyone was happy that my face would be restored.”
Captain Horobets’s unit was stationed in the region of Zaporizhzhia as the Russians took territory in eastern Ukraine.
When a communications link on a bridge was broken, he and two colleagues were sent to fix it.
However, they were spotted by the enemy, who laced the area with an artillery barrage.
“As we waited for the end and were about to leave, several more shells were fired. I crouched down, turned my head and was immediately hit in the head,” he explained.
“When did you realise you’d be injured?” I asked.
“There was a heavy hit. A shell exploded and shrapnel hit my face. I can show you pictures.”
Captain Horobets lost his right eye and part of his nose. His jaw and the right side of his skull were badly damaged.
Doctors in the city of Zaporizhzhia saved his life. Later, maxillofacial surgeons in Lviv, western Ukraine, reassembled his jaw.
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However, it was clear that he would need access to long-term, specialist care – something Ukraine’s overwhelmed healthcare system cannot offer.
His case was forwarded to the team running the medical evacuation operation for the European Union. A complex and unprecedented initiative, it has placed more than 2,000 of the most seriously injured Ukrainians at hospitals around the continent.
A team in Brussels found a hospital bed in Dublin and formulated a plan to move Captain Horobets there.
The disfigured soldier was driven to Rzeszów in southeast Poland, then flown to Ireland via a French medical jet.
“Everything happened so quickly,” said Captain Horobets, who had never travelled abroad until his ‘medevac’.
Yet his progress has been slow.
An infection inflamed the right side of his face and doctors postponed his treatment.
Further delays have been caused by high admission rates at Ireland’s hospitals.
Captain Horobets, like everyone else, has had to wait his turn.
‘I’ve already fought my war’
With time on his hands, Captain Horobets started visiting fellow Ukrainians like Ivan Nedobryk, who is currently receiving care at the National Rehabilitation Hospital on Dublin’s outskirts.
Sergeant Nedobryk was shot twice in June in the village of Dolyna in the region of Donetsk.
One bullet entered through his shoulder and passed through his spinal column, confining the 32-year-old to a wheelchair.
“How are you feeling after [your treatment]?” asked Captain Horobets.
“I can’t even stand up,” he replied.
“But you look great,” said Captain Horobets after a lengthy pause.
Sergeant Nedobryk wore a troubled look. The pain he feels is both physical and psychological.
“Tell me about the war,” I asked.
“It was hell – I hadn’t seen anything like that even in the films… I changed my mind about the war when it started, when I saw what we had to go through, what our guys go through every day. It’s hard to talk about, hard to think about.”
“Will you go back to Ukraine?” I asked.
“To tell the truth, I’d like to stay here,” said Sergeant Nedobryk, who has been joined in Ireland by members of his family.
“I’ve already fought my war.”
‘The truth is on our side’
Captain Horobets has an alternative plan. He wants to rejoin the battle on the eastern front.
“Is it worth it? I mean, you have suffered,” I asked.
“Of course it is. What kind of question is that? Of course it is.
“The truth is on our side. They’ve brought us so much grief.”
The connection with home is clearly strong and Captain Horobets admits to feeling some guilt as he surveys his new surroundings.
“It’s hard to be safe here when you know someone is dying there every day,” he said.
Yet the decision to return, when he has finished his treatment, is unlikely to be an easy one.
He has been joined in Ireland by his wife and one-year-old daughter, and says they feel happy and safe.
