Ukrainian conflict veterans, some amputees, swim Istanbul’s Bosphorus on Ukraine’s independence day

ISTANBUL — During a pool coaching session months in the past, Ukrainian conflict veteran Oleh Tserkovnyi was struck by an thought: What if a gaggle of veterans swam throughout the strait of Bosphorus, between Turkey’s European and Asian shores? And in the event that they did it on Aug. 24, Ukraine’s independence day?

The symbolism of the day would draw consideration to the toll and devastation inflicted by Russia’s full-out conflict on Ukraine, now in its fourth yr.

When the 34-year-old pitched the concept to fellow veterans of their One for Another help group, none raised accidents, significantly their amputations, as a barrier. Two joined him immediately.

They skilled for months, with the help of Superhumans Center, a veterans’ rehabilitation clinic in Ukraine, and coached by CapitalTRI, an beginner triathlon workforce in Kyiv. They agreed their race would have one other purpose — to boost cash for prosthetics, which stay expensive and urgently wanted by lots of Ukraine’s wounded.

“We’re not asking for pity,” Tserkovnyi informed the Associated Press shortly earlier than the competitors. “We’re asking for support.”

A race that hyperlinks continents

After months of rigorous coaching, self-discipline and bodily challenges, the three Ukrainian veterans on Sunday joined greater than 2,800 swimmers from 81 international locations within the 4-mile crossing from Asia to Europe.

The Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Race is an open-water occasion held every year in Istanbul, organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee since 1989.

On Monday, coast guard and maritime police vessels in Istanbul had been looking for a Russian swimmer who went lacking through the race, Turkish state-run media reported.

The swimmer, named by the Anadolu information company as Nikolai Svechnikov, failed to finish the race from Istanbul’s Asian shore to the European facet.

An announcement from the Istanbul governor’s workplace stated safety digital camera footage and a chip worn by the individuals confirmed the 30-year-old skilled swimming coach had began the race however “had not exited the sea at the finish line.”

More than 2,800 swimmers from 81 international locations took half in Sunday’s competitors, which is taken into account one of many world’s main open-water races.

Swimmers face robust currents and uneven waves whereas traversing the waterway, which hyperlinks the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and divides Turkey’s largest metropolis. The strait was closed to maritime visitors for the occasion, which is organized by the Turkish National Olympic Committee.

All three Ukrainians accomplished the crossing, every swimming for greater than an hour. The two veterans with amputations confronted setbacks even earlier than the beginning — the organizers initially barred them from competing, insisting they must be in a separate class for folks with disabilities.

But they persevered and swam the race, alongside the others.

For the Ukrainians, it wasn’t nearly endurance however about reclaiming management over our bodies reworked by conflict — and sharing their restoration with a world that always appears detached to the accidents they carry.

Seeking steadiness within the water

Sports had at all times been part of Tserkovnyi’s life, however conflict and harm pushed him to make use of it as a survival device after two extreme, life-changing concussions — a bridge again to life for conflict veterans with disabilities.

“Sport itself heals — we’ve seen that firsthand,” he stated. “And the community, it pulls you through. It pushes you, it disciplines you.”

When he speaks, he’s fast to level out the adjustments he sees in himself — the stutter, the involuntary twitch in his eye.

“It’s what’s left over. It used to be much worse,” he stated.

Both of his concussions had been the results of extended publicity to artillery fireplace whereas serving on the entrance line. He was a sniper when the second hit. Afterward, he stated, it felt like he had misplaced his sense of steadiness totally.

“There were times I could walk, but then suddenly I’d just tip over like a pencil,” Tserkovnyi stated. “I have third-degree hearing loss on one side, no peripheral vision.”

The sense of being “a sick person,” he stated, felt so international to him that he threw himself into restoration with every little thing he had. For a very long time, he additionally had PTSD signs, together with dramatic flashbacks to the conflict.

But it was within the pool that he discovered a solution to acknowledge the warning indicators. “I began to understand what triggers them, when they come, and how to stay ahead of them,” he stated.

A path again to oneself

Engineer Pavlo Tovstyk signed up as a volunteer within the early days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Serving as a driver in an intelligence unit, he stepped on a landmine in June 2023.

The blast took his foot, and subsequent surgical procedures led to a partial amputation of his left leg.

The 47-year-old, who was an energetic swimmer as a toddler, by no means thought swimming would turn into a lifeline. He was nonetheless recovering from his harm when he started sneaking into the swimming pool, holding it a secret from the docs.

“Water became a kind of savior for me,” he stated. “At the time, everything felt disoriented. But in the water, my thoughts, my strength, my body — it all came together again. I became myself again. Just … different.”

The thought to swim the strait in Turkey began virtually as a dare, then turned a plan.

“To cross the Bosphorus, you need not just physical strength, but a certain mindset — a state of determination that all of us managed to find within ourselves,” he stated.

Calm present in goal

Oleksandr Dashko found swimming solely after dropping his left leg.

The 28-year-old had joined the navy in the beginning of the Russian invasion and served within the infantry in numerous front-line areas.

In June 2023, a mine exploded close to him and shrapnel tore into his knee.

“I didn’t take it very graciously, let’s say,” he stated as he recounted the conflicted emotions that tormented him for therefore lengthy. Adjustment to life with an amputation has been gradual and mentally taxing.

It was solely over the previous yr that he was capable of give attention to bodily rehabilitation — and swimming, he stated, has turn into the exercise that brings him a way of calm.

The problem of swimming the Bosphorus turned a goal for Dashko.

“When I do nothing, I slip back to that state right after the injury — depression, apathy, the feeling that the amputation is winning,” he stated. “But when something like this shows up on my path, it gives me a jolt — to live, to move forward, to motivate others.”

Physical objectives, he stated, assist anchor him. He hopes for extra such challenges, not only for himself, however for different veterans.

“Honestly, if it weren’t for this, I’d probably be drunk and lying under a fence somewhere,” he stated.

Maloletka and Arhirova write for the Associated Press. Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.