Team Ukraine got a crash course in snow sports at the Invictus Games in Vancouver-Whistler, the first Invictus with winter events.
One of the team’s training camps took place in the winter resort, requiring athletes to learn snowboarding, skiing, and skeleton skills from scratch in a week.
But some adjustment was needed in a place where nights were silent, and no shells were falling or missiles flying.
Oleksandr Androshchuk, who won gold in novice snowboard after training in the sport for a week, said when the air conditioning turned on in his hotel room, it sounded like a rocket, while the skeleton (small sled) rocketing down the ice track sounded like a fighter jet.
His first reaction was to hide, but then he realized he was in Canada. He added that he knew the fighting continued back home, and they had to go back, and everything would continue.
A few team members shared their thoughts a day before the games ended on 16 February. Founded by Prince Harry in 2014, the Invictus Games are dedicated to injured and wounded military veterans from around the world and take place every two years.
Androshchuk joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2015, then left the military for a career in IT, only to rejoin when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
After 10 months of combat, his leg was badly injured in the Donetsk area when a mortar shell landed nearby.
“For a few seconds, I thought it was my last minutes . . . but our surgeons saved my leg, and I’m grateful for that.
“I’m learning to walk with my little son.”
Many operations followed, and it was a long rehab. After a year, he joined Team Ukraine.
Asked what it feels like to have his country’s sovereignty threatened by a nation like Russia, Androshchuk said it doesn’t matter how big the enemy is. “You should try to do your best to defend your family and your country.”
Artur Mylin, a research scientist at the Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, said that when the full-scale invasion began, he felt it was his duty to join the military and help defend Kyiv when the Russians tried to capture it in the early days of the war.
Then, he was transferred to the Donetsk area, where he spent nine months on the eastern front and lost a leg from a combat injury. That may not seem like a long time, “but in this war, every day matters.
“The battles are very intense, and many soldiers do not survive their first fight,” he said.
He said he feels the support of Western countries, even in supplying small items such as modern tourniquets, one of which saved his life.
Advanced medical equipment from Western countries also kept him alive, he added.
Mylin had been in Russia a few times before the war and had friends there, and Russians still feel that Ukrainians should be their servants, “even in the 21st Century.
“And it was impossible even to change their minds. They are sure that it should be like this.
“It’s not about land … this fight, from my point of view,” he said.
He added that Ukraine gave up Crimea, but it didn’t stop.
“They don’t want land. They want us as slaves. It’s normal for them to have such behavior,” that’s why we protect ourselves and our families, he said.
Ukraine has no choice but to win the war; otherwise, kids and grandkids will face the same thing, said Alina Frolova, founder of Invictus Games Ukraine.
“That is why … this is not about the land, it’s about our existence. We are some symbol of what Russia hates. We are independent. We love to live …”
Alina Frolova, founder of Invictus Games Ukraine
Ukraine appreciates Western aid but will fight anyway, she said. “We’ll do our best to win this war.”
Frolova said there are more than a million war veterans, and by the end of the war, up to six million people will be affected in some way by the invasion.
With so many injured veterans, it’s a matter of society adapting to the veterans, not veterans adapting to society, she added.
“Because the numbers are so huge.”
The war is also a wake-up call for other countries and shows that nations can get through difficult times, she said.
Taras Kovalyk, with the Come Back Alive Foundation, said caring for injured veterans is important so people know it’s worthwhile to keep fighting.
He said it’s important to create spaces where citizens and veterans can experience the future for which they’re fighting. Not caring for injured veterans can hurt the morale of those still fighting.
So it’s good to start building now, he added.
Ilona Voloshyna, team manager, said that war veterans are now Ukraine’s main human capital. “Veterans taking part in adaptive sport increases their recovery,” she said.
The main thing the country needs is hope, added Kovalyk.
“And Ukraine will not be something that you will trade.
“Somehow, our nation now, I think, needs this feeling that we are not alone and never will be alone.”
Ilona Voloshyna, team manager of Invictus Ukraine
Closing ceremonies for the Invictus Games took place Sunday.
Team Ukraine received another standing ovation from fellow competitors at the closing ceremonies, Friday, attended by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Ukraine took third place among 13 countries, scoring 30 medals — its second-best result since joining the Invictus Games in 2017.
