On September 21, 2026, the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces launched a new project, "Protez DShV. Be among your own," aimed at enabling servicemen who have gone through severe injuries and prosthetics to continue serving in the Defense Forces. The initiative creates work directions for such fighters that do not involve direct presence at the front line and offers to apply through the project page, followed by contact from a DShV recruiter. The central story of the new material is that of a serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Sichslav Brigade, Alexey Kapelyushny, who returned to service after the amputation of a leg and captivity in Russian hands.
Project launch and the logic of service after prosthetics
In the Air Assault Forces, it is emphasized that prosthetics itself does not mean the end of a military career. According to them, servicemen after amputations are already carrying out combat tasks, including working with unmanned systems and ground robotic complexes. The project is intended to systematize this process: the army risks losing people with unique combat experience, while their knowledge and skills remain in demand for other positions. Within the framework of "Protez DShV," the DShV intend to tell the stories of servicemen of the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps and the 8th DShV Corps who continue serving after amputations and other severe injuries.
The story of Alexey Kapelyushny: amputation in battle and encirclement
According to the paratrooper's own account, during one of the battles he found himself encircled and sustained a severe leg injury. Kapelyushny claims that, understanding that the leg was hindering him, he completed its amputation himself, after which he held his defense for another two and a half hours. He was then taken to a hospital in occupied Horlivka, where the leg was amputated above the knee. According to him, one of the medics secretly brought him food and said: "Not everyone here wants to go to Russia, we are waiting for Ukraine here." "Even for the sake of this one person, Horlivka is worth liberating," the serviceman noted.
Captivity, Elenovka, and return on crutches
After treatment, Kapelyushny, according to him, fell into Russian captivity and went through a camp in Elenovka, where, as he recounts, there were beatings, torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and harsh conditions of detention. From captivity, the paratrooper returned on crutches, which, according to him, he traded for a piece of bread. At the same time, as he claims, he managed to carry out information about Ukrainian defenders held by Russia. After the exchange, the serviceman underwent treatment and prosthetics but did not leave the army and returned to service in the Air Assault Forces.
Caveats and the nature of the information
It should be noted that the launch of the project and its mechanics are confirmed by editorial material, while the key details of Alexey Kapelyushny's biography — self-amputation in battle, conditions in Horlivka and Elenovka, the exchange for crutches — are presented as his personal testimony and cannot be independently verified at the time of publication. This is not a contradiction between sources, but a limitation by the nature of the data: the three domains examined transmit the same original source, so cross-verification by independent facts is absent.
