Russian amputees returning from the war in Ukraine: Who would want me? How will I live?'

"Life is divided into a before and an after, says Vladimir Rasskazov, a Russian veteran of the war against Ukraine, as he tours the rehabilitation center he founded to help other soldiers who have suffered amputations, Prosthetics for Our People (Protezi Dlia Svoij, a name that plays on Russian wordplay, as it matches the acronym of what the Kremlin calls its special military operation against the neighboring country)."

"You could say the company was born in November 2022, he adds, displaying several medals for valor and the Bakhmut meat grinder, a decoration awarded by the Wagner Group paramilitary force to troops who participated in that bloody offensive. The idea for the center in Rostov-on-Don, near the border with Ukraine, started the day Rasskazov lost a leg to a landmine explosion in that battle. The facilities finally opened in September 2025."

"He dreams of receiving his first custom-made prosthesis, but for now he makes do with a plastic limb he has been using for eight months. I came to Rostov-on-Don to study civil engineering, but I didn't finish my studies and had to leave Russia. I didn't want to, so I signed a contract to go and fight. And I was wounded, the young African man recounts."

Vladimir Rasskazov tours the rehabilitation center he founded to help soldiers who have suffered amputations. The center is named Prosthetics for Our People (Protezi Dlia Svoij), mirroring the Kremlin's acronym for its special military operation. Rasskazov displays medals for valor and a Bakhmut meat grinder decoration linked to the Wagner Group. The idea for the center began after he lost a leg to a landmine during the Bakhmut offensive. The facilities opened in September 2025 in Rostov-on-Don near the Ukrainian border. The center treats amputee combatants, including foreign recruits such as Glodi, a 28-year-old from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Foreign military service offers a fast track to Russian citizenship, with estimates of a few thousand foreign recruits and leaked data showing about 1,500 in Moscow up to 2024.

Read at english.elpais.com