CLEVELAND — Igor Bondarenko is honored to be hosting Ukrainian army commander Miraslov Pylypchuk at his Gates Mills home, as Pylypchuk receives critical medical treatment in Northeast Ohio.
On May 16, Pylypchuk nearly lost his life after stepping on a Russian landmine while leading his anti-tank unit against a Russian attack in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine. The explosion severely damaged his left leg, which had to be amputated.
Pylypchuk explained to News 5, using Bondarenko as an interpreter, how he used a velcro tourniquet supplied by Northeast Ohio agency God Loves Ukraine to stop the bleeding on the battle field and save his life.
Just months before the severe injury, Pylypchuck married the love of his life. Additionally, weeks after the incident, he became the father of a new baby boy. Pylypchuk shared his appreciation for all the northeast Ohio support and continued aid from the U.S. during the on-going Russian invasion in Ukraine.
“I didn’t think about death at that moment, or dying in that moment," Pylypchuk said. "I worried about what would happen to my family. It’s hard to overestimate just what a huge difference in Ukraine American help is making everyday.”
Bondarenko told News 5 Cleveland Baptist Church Chaplain Ron Jackson, and his agency God Loves Ukraine has been providing crucial aid to Ukraine soldiers since 2014, bringing supplies, gloves, tourniquets and more. Bondarenko said Jackson and others on his team have repeatedly risked their lives, traveling to Ukraine more than a dozen times, to bring support to the war torn country and its people.
Bondarenko outlined what drives the strength that has made Pylypchuk a hero in his country.
“It is about people, his family, and what he’s fighting for is not some abstract idea," Bondarenko said. "It’s for a chance for is son to grow up in country that’s free and prosperous, where he’s not risking his life by just taking a stroll down the street.”
Bondarenko explained how Hanger Clinic will create and fit a new prosthetic leg for Pylypchuk free of charge in the coming weeks, in yet another act of northeast Ohio kindness. Bondarenko has also set up a fund to try and help Ptlypchuk and his family during this difficult time.
Bondarenko said relief fromGod Loves Ukraineand the U.S. is more important than ever before.
“The Russians are murdering civilian women, children, old people. Destroying hospitals and schools and forbidding the Ukrainian language in occupied territories,” Bondarenko said.
He also stressed the basic right to be a citizen in the United States.
“It's the right to exist as a country, the right for Ukrainian people to be Ukrainian, the right to have the basics that we here in the U.S. take for granted each and every day."
