Physical reboot: how sports bring fighters back to life after injury
A kettlebell, boxing gloves, and a volleyball ball were the ones that helped fighters who had gone through severe injuries, surgeries, and months of recovery to reassemble themselves. Behind each such story there are hospital rooms, exhausting rehabilitation, bouts of despair and the question: "How to live on?". And then — daily work on yourself, unwillingness to give up and search for a new support. About why training helps to overcome the consequences of severe injuries, regain self-confidence and return to a full-fledged life - in the material of Izvestia.
Rugby, swimming, equestrian sports
In the DPR, as in many other regions of Russia, there are sections where a person who was injured during the fighting and has a disability group can enroll. These are therapeutic swimming, equestrian sports, as well as such interesting team disciplines as sitting volleyball, rugby and wheelchair basketball. Volleyball classes in Donetsk, for example, are held three times a week, for 2.5 hours. The number of regular participants is 12-15. Among them are veterans of the SVO who lost one or two legs, as well as guys who suffered domestic injuries. In real life, everyone uses prosthetics, but they are removed for the duration of the game.
Sitting volleyball, the rules are the same as in standard volleyball
— Our task is to involve not only the injured children in the classes, but also all the participants in our training. To meet them, to interest them," Maxim Shvets, the Minister of Sports and Tourism of the DPR, a multiple winner of world martial arts tournaments, told Izvestia. — During combat operations, as we know, a large amount of adrenaline is injected into the blood, and then, on a "civilian basis," the body urgently requires these doses of the hormone, especially at first. It is extremely important to channel human energy in a constructive way during this period.
Sitting volleyball, classes are held 3 times a week for 2-2.5 hours
It is planned to build two adaptive sports centers in the republic in the near future, the head of the department noted. One in Makeyevka, the other in Donetsk. Various sections will accumulate within their walls, dating days will be held regularly, and a barrier-free environment will be provided for participants. Another project involves the construction of a separate demonstration center in the capital of the DPR, where you can see everything that is available in the republic for the adaptation of people with disabilities and choose an activity to your liking. Negotiations are currently underway with the Russian Paralympic Committee on the issue of equipment.
Control your breathing, wait for the dark
There are those who recover based on their own training and experience. A vivid example of this is a military man with the call sign Kos, a master of sports in boxing, a winner and prize—winner of the championships of Ukraine, a coach who has trained several champions at the regional level already in Russia.
Dmitry S., call sign Kosa returned to coaching after severe injuries
He found himself in the war zone in February 2022. In Mariupol, his group of 14 people went to clean up the private sector, stumbled upon a fortified area and came under heavy fire from the Armed Forces of Ukraine — from machine guns, machine guns, grenade launchers. Dmitry was wounded in the neck and forearm, both through. He lay down. He fired single or double shots, saving ammo.
"In order not to lose a lot of blood, I pressed the wound on my chest with my hand," he says. — I was chewing ampoules of painkillers. Sports training helped a lot, I understood that if I start to get nervous, my blood pressure will rise and I will bleed out. Therefore, he controlled his emotions, did not allow fear to capture him, and constantly restored his breathing. And he was waiting for darkness to leave.
Dmitry S., call sign Kosa, continues to train students, 6 days a week
I waited.
He crawled out with a comrade-in-arms, who was also wounded. As soon as we left the danger zone, we got up and walked, supporting each other. Dmitry lost consciousness from blood loss. But there were already people nearby — they arrived, picked them up, and loaded them onto a stretcher. At the hospital, it turned out that one of the fragments had damaged the trachea, esophagus, lung, and shattered the collarbone. The fighter could not speak for three months. He has undergone seven surgeries. They tried to replace the collarbone with a titanium one, but the body did not accept it, rejected it. Today Dmitry lives without bones.
"It was very difficult at first," the boxer admits. — The condition is apathetic. Dreams are heavy and depressing. I look at myself — thin, flabby, unnecessary, I can't move normally. But I'm an athlete! How to deal with it…
To my native walls
The way out of the vicious circle began with the fact that Dmitry began to walk whenever possible. The main thing was not to stay in bed, not to plunge back into pain, he explains. During the same period, he asked the attending physician a question: "What should I do with my arm and shoulder?" He recommended: "Develop it." In response to the fact that this was unrealistic, there was an even more categorical: "Otherwise it will only get worse."
"I started trying,— says Dima. — Plus, turn on the whole body — make the pendulum with the body, turns, tilts. Then I added strength rubbers and dumbbells. At the same time, my friends took me to the gym — to my native walls. And this aura played an equally healing role. At first, I just watched, then I suggested something to the young boxers.
Dmitry, call sign Kosa: "The aura of the native gym played a huge role in recovery"
Gradually, increasing the load, Dima restored his muscular frame. I got behind the wheel of the car again. And in 2024, he returned to the students as an instructor. Today, he works with children in two clubs — six days a week, for 4-5 hours (the other day his ward returned from the Russian championship, where he won a prize). Her left arm still doesn't rise to the end, and it's impossible for her to hold a boxing paw, but she can handle it with her right hand.
— Physically, I probably won't recover completely, — says the boxer. — But I recovered psychologically.
Speaking about the principles that inspired him on his way back to a normal life, Dmitry calls his own — "My best doctor is the gym." And the motto of beloved boxer Mike Tyson: "When it's hard for me, I always remind myself that if I give up, it won't get any better."
16 life-saving kilograms
Pavel Snaid started in 2014 as a militia member. He became a citizen in 2025. He is 52 years old and lives in Yenakiyevo. He has been working as a loader at a meat processing plant for almost a year. He was a machine gunner at the front, carrying a Utes and a DShK on his shoulders. Since childhood, he has been pulling kettlebells, barbells, and dumbbells and continues to this day, five days a week, despite the tons of work at work.
"And I was lifting weights on the front," he says. — I was carrying two sixteen-kilos with me. It calmed down, relieved stress and tension. What's the main thing at the front? Stay sane, don't get overwhelmed by what's going on around you.
Pavel Snaid, popularizer of strength training. He set his wounded son on his feet
In 2014, his son, Fedor, also volunteered. At first we were in different squads, then in one. "It's easier when your son is in front of your eyes," explains Snide. On April 28, 2022, Fedya was wounded in a battle near Avdiivka. Three fragments passed through the eye socket, caught the brain and got stuck in the head. The guy was taken to Donetsk. Doctors performed a skull trepanation and removed the metal. After that, he was sent to the Institute of Maxillofacial Surgery in Moscow, where he spent five months.
"He barely spoke, he couldn't hear very well, he hardly moved," Pavel recalls, and it's clear how much pain each such word costs him. — When I returned home, I asked myself and us only one question: "Why did I stay alive? .." I lost heart. He stayed at home all the time. He began to abuse alcohol…
Sitting volleyball practice. Professional Donetsk volleyball players participate in the classes with the injured children.
At the same time, my father realized that everything had to be done to get Fedya back on his feet. "Son, let's start with the exercises, it will be easier, I know for myself," he said. At first, he waved it off. But gradually he began to pick up dumbbells, then kettlebells. Then the situation developed according to the principle "by leaps and bounds." Six months later, his son was unrecognizable. Muscles, strength, and strength returned. And with them, the desire to do something, the very joy of life. Alcohol is a thing of the past.
— Strength training is a powerful blood supply, including to the brain, — says Pavel. — If you don't use certain muscles, your body turns them off. And if you develop it, the body's mobilization mode is activated. Therefore, it is important not to take care of yourself, not to feel sorry for yourself!
Donetsk athletes
Today's result of the mutual family struggle speaks for itself — Fedor is able to lift the same 16 kg at least ten times. He returned to a full life. He works as a construction handyman in Moscow, goes on shifts. He makes plans for his own business. The old question "why live?" It doesn't even occur. There has been a transformation of man.
Pavel Snaid himself created a channel on social networks and motivates other war veterans to turn to strength training, conducts online classes for them. And he also tries to convey to everyone a simple and important thought: "If you returned from the front and got drunk or lost yourself, you lost your personal war."
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