"When I play, it's as if I'm returning to my injury." How amp-football helps veterans recover

It's a Saturday morning in Kyiv. The streets around are almost empty, but the Bannikov Stadium, near the Ukrainian Football Association, is constantly being driven by cars and people wearing scarves with the symbols of football teams. Today is the first part of the last round of the Ukrainian Amputee Football Championship, a football game played by people with one amputated lower limb.

Two teams were the first to arrive at the stadium: Lutsk club Khrestonostsi and Donetsk club Shakhtar Stalevi. Today is the decisive game: the winner will take second place in the Ukrainian Championship and a ticket to the UEFA Amputees League.

The players go into the locker room, joke around, laugh, tune in to the game, and listen to the coaches' instructions. Then they go out on the field and start warming up.

One of Shakhtar's players is a former marine, Denys Volynets. He hasn't been with the team for long, and today will be his third game. Before he takes to the football field, he takes off his prosthetic left leg and picks up crutches. First, he runs with the ball around the chips, and then goes to practice his kicks.

LIGA.net attended an amputee football match and learned how the sport helps veterans recover from injuries.

Occupation, service, injuries

Denys Volynets is 27 years old and comes from the village of Pryvitne in the Kherson region. Since childhood, he has loved playing football. He didn't give up his hobby even as an adult – he played in the amateur team Atlant and combined it with his job as a cash collector. Until in 2019 he was called up for military service in the Joint Forces Operation zone. He served there for a year and then returned to his normal life in Pryvitne.

When the full-scale invasion began, Denys's town was immediately occupied. Life changed dramatically – he lost his job, people on the streets, and an understanding of what to expect next. Russian soldiers were constantly driving around the town and could take anyone they didn't like to the basement. Especially a former soldier.

"They stopped me once, stripped me down to my underwear and started checking if I had any patriotic tattoos. Luckily, I didn't have any at the time," Denys recalls. "And fortunately, the Russians didn't find out that I had served – our military must have destroyed the documents in the military registration and enlistment offices before retreating. It was only because of this that my wife and I were able to leave after a month and a half of occupation."

Denys and his wife first moved to Zaporizhzhia, then to Ternopil. But the man did not plan to stay there for long, he had a plan: to find a place to live, at least minimally arrange his wife's life, and join the army. A week later, he returned to the unit he served in during the Joint Forces Operation.

Bakhmut, Vodiane, Tonenke, Ocheretyne and Orlivka are the places where Denys fought with his unit in 2022-2023. Denys was a rifleman – he stormed enemy positions and defended his own from enemy attacks.

on January 11, 2023, Denys was on a combat mission. He had to lead a group of soldiers from the front line to the rear along a mined road. "They were brought there on armored vehicles, and it was no longer possible to get back on vehicles," he explains. During the exodus, Denys was the first to go. Halfway through, he heard a dull sound – a petal mine exploded right under his foot.

Denys's left leg was torn off below the knee, and his right leg was badly damaged by the debris. While waiting for the evacuation vehicle, he hardly felt any pain due to shock. It started to hurt in the ambulance. They injected him with morphine and he passed out.

"It was a terrible journey. In addition to the fact that there were mines scattered everywhere, we were also shelled with everything possible. There were machine gun bursts, machine gun shots and, of course, artillery," Denys recalls. "I was the only one who was wounded that day, but the situation became more and more difficult. I know that after me there were more than 300 and more than 200."

Then there was the road from one stabilization center to another. He remembers it vaguely. He knows that he was in Karlivka and Pokrovsk. He knows that some surgeries were performed there. But he fully regained consciousness in Dnipro. He spent two and a half months in Mechnikov Hospital. He underwent several more surgeries, and when his condition improved, he was sent to Lutsk for further treatment.

Denys wanted to get back on his prosthesis as soon as possible and return to the army. So he rejected an offer to go to the United States for rehabilitation and prosthetics – he had to wait several months for the trip – and found a prosthetic center in Vinnytsia. The rehabilitation was successful, and in two months Denys returned to service. Now he is an instructor – he teaches recruits how to assault and defend themselves during enemy attacks.

"I have loved football all my life"

One day, a friend from the prosthetic center invited Denys to a training session of the Shakhtar Stalev amputees – he played there himself and thought it might be interesting for his friend.

"I agreed because I have always loved playing football. But after my injury, I thought I would never be able to do it again," says Denys. "When I first saw Shakhtar Staliv play, I was fascinated. I started watching games, cheering and cautiously dreaming that one day I would play with them myself."

A couple of weeks later, Denys' wish came true. He came to a viewing – a trial training session where the coach decides whether to take a player to the team. "That was the first time I thought I could return to the life I had before my injury and play football again," Denys recalls.

After the training session, he was approached by Shakhtar Steel head coach Bohdan Bilko, who praised him for his performance and offered to join the team.

"Of course, I agreed, but I explained that I was still serving, so I couldn't attend all the training sessions," says Denys. "We agreed that I would train on my own and join the team during training camps and games. Later, it turned out that there are still players in the team who continue to serve and also train on their own."

The main difference between amputee football and regular football is that players have amputations of one lower limb, so they play on crutches. However, they cannot touch the ball with crutches. The goalkeeper plays without them, but he must have an amputation of one of his upper limbs. The playing time is also shorter here – two halves of 20 minutes each.

For training, Denys was given crutches, a ball, chips and other equipment. He trains twice a week: he goes to the nearest town to his military unit and plays at the local stadium.

Each session begins with a warm-up. Then he zigzags the chips on the field. He takes crutches in his hands and starts running around the chips, while kicking the ball. This helps to practice coordination, speed and ball control. Then there are passes and shots. If there is no one in the stadium, Denys kicks the ball into the wall, takes the rebound and repeats the exercise.

Sometimes local children join the training. When seven or eight of them gather, they divide into two teams and play. The children do not pay attention to Denys's crutches and the absence of a part of his leg – they treat him as an equal.

"Switching from soccer to amputees was not that difficult. The only thing that was really difficult was learning to run on crutches. Or rather, to understand how to do it," says Denys. "I still don't always run perfectly, but now I understand how I should.

His previous experience and general physical fitness helped him quickly adapt to the new sport – Denys has always trained on horizontal bars and parallel bars, and worked out with weights in the gym.

Denis has been playing for Shakhtar Steel for only a month and a half, during which time he took part in one game and even scored a goal – one of the two that brought his team victory.

"Amp-football helped me a lot after my injury," says Denys. "Thanks to the training, I seemed to return to the life I had before the war, before my injury. The time when I played football. My emotions came back along with it."

"Amp-football is not rehabilitation, but recovery"

Amputees can be a way of both physical and mental recovery, says Yaroslava Bratus, senior analyst at the Come Back Alive Initiatives Center. The Center works in two areas, one of which is the development of a culture of recovery for veterans and servicemen after injuries, traumas or illnesses through adaptive sports.

According to Yaroslava, it is important to distinguish between the concepts of recovery, which adaptive sports helps with, and full rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation involves the complex work of many specialists: physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, doctors of physical and rehabilitation medicine. Amp-football performs a supportive function after basic rehabilitation.

Among all the adaptive sports, amputees are one of the most traumatic, so they should only be involved in it after full rehabilitation and consultation with a doctor to make sure that the sport will be beneficial and not harmful in a particular case.

If there are no contraindications, amp-football helps to regain and maintain physical fitness: it strengthens muscles, increases flexibility and mobility of the body, makes it stronger and more enduring. However, the impact of amp-football is not limited to this.

For many veterans, it becomes a tool for emotional relief. It creates a safe space where you can release aggression, tension, cope with confusion and internal chaos. That is, everything that veterans often face when returning to civilian life and recovering from trauma.

By playing amputees, veterans feel that they are getting stronger and adapting better to their new bodies, which gives them confidence and reduces anxiety and distress. Amp-football also helps with socialization, which is also often a problem when a veteran returns to civilian life, especially after a serious injury.

"Our team has existed since the beginning of 2024, and during this time, the guys have become one community – a sports family," says their head coach Bohdan Bilko about the experience of Shakhtar Steel players. Now all the boys are cheering and discussing the success of Shakhtar's first team, women's and youth teams. Even those who were closed-minded and not very sociable at the beginning are now talking about sports with enthusiasm."

The score is 1-0

The players are standing in a circle with their hands on top of each other. Suddenly they start shouting: "Miner, miner!" and then they sharply raise their hands up and continue to shout: "Steelers!" Fans are shouting along with them from the stands – most of them are FC Shakhtar fans, but there are also relatives, friends of the players and other veterans.

It's time to start the game between FC Khrestonostsi and FC Shakhtar Staliv. All the players take their positions – there are fewer of them on the field than in classic football, seven players for each team. The head referee blows the whistle to start the match.

"When we go out on the field, I always get a little bit of a jittery feeling, I get goosebumps. And then the game starts, and I get incredible pleasure from it. I completely relax and get involved in the process as much as possible," says Denys. "It's a whole range of emotions – when I missed the goal, when I scored a goal, when it was disallowed.

The speed of the game in amputee football is much slower. This is influenced not only by the difficulty of moving on crutches, but also by the specifics of the game. Players pass the ball to each other with short passes. There are almost no long passes, because it is difficult for players on crutches to receive them. Therefore, the opponent often intercepts the ball in the middle of the field, preventing them from reaching the goal.

Emotions run high on the field just like in classic football. Players quarrel with their opponents when they stall or demand a free kick. Every pause in the match is accompanied by emotional shouts: "Get up!", "Let's play", "Come on, guys, let's go". During each shot toward the goal, both coaches' benches fall silent. When the ball flies past, some sigh with relief, others with disappointment.

Both teams need only a victory today, and one goal can provide it. In the 13th minute, the Crusaders manage to do it. The Crusaders open the scoring with a shot into the far corner of the goal. Both benches react to this:

"Shakhtar is the champion! Shakhtar Forward!", chant and beat the drum fans of Shakhtar Steel.

"The Crusaders are the winners!" the opposing fans reply. A small fight breaks out between them. They take turns chanting that their club will be the winner in today's match.

"Zaychik, you can do it," the crowd chants. It is clear that in addition to football fans, the players' families are also at the game.

40 minutes of regular time have already expired, and in the last minute of added time, the referee gives a free kick from the center of the field in favor of the miners. The whole team is tense – they realize that this is their last chance to score and at least tie the game.

The players take a free kick. The first pass, the second, but the third one fails – the Crusaders kick the ball forward, and while it is still flying in the air, the whistle blows to end the game. All the players are desperate. They realize how close they were to their goal.

"Together and to the end," Shakhtar fans shout, while congratulations on the victory are heard from the other side of the stands.

The end of the championship

"Shakhtar go to the locker room. Everyone is upset – with this loss they have lost the chance to represent Ukraine in the European Cups next season.

"Football is always about emotions. When you win, it's usually joy and happiness. When you lose, it's sadness and disappointment. After such games, especially when the score is 1-0, you think about what you could have done differently during the game," says Denys. "But it doesn't demotivate you, on the contrary, you want to show more next time.

No one knows what the coach is talking about with the players in the locker room. But while this is happening, a crowd in orange and black colors – Shakhtar Steel fans – is gathering around the room. They are holding fireworks.

The players come out of the locker room and the small area in front of the building literally disappears in smoke. The fans and the team are screaming and cheering.

"It was my first game where our ultras were present. And it was incredible. Even when at the end of the game we had no strength left, they still pushed us forward," says Denys. "And after the game, even when we lost, they came and supported us.

The team gradually gathers near the bus to go to the hotel. Tomorrow they will play their last game of the season. Although they have no hope for European competitions, they can still compete for bronze in the first Ukrainian AmpFootball Championship.

The next day, they would win it.

After the competition, Denys returns to duty. He's tired of it and the constant uncertainty, but the thought of the next championships and team training camps helps keep him afloat:

"I have always loved football. And amp-football seems to have brought back a part of me before my injury. It brought back those emotions, moments – the thrill of the game. Probably because of this, when I play, I think more about civilian life than about the service," says Denys. "I see myself playing amp-football in the future. Maybe even reach the level of the national team."

The material was created by LIGA.net is supported by the Askold & Dir Foundation, administered by ISAR Ednannia as part of the project "Strong Civil Society in Ukraine – Driving Reforms and Democracy" with funding from Norway and Sweden. The content of this publication is the responsibility of LIGA.net and do not reflect the views of the governments of Norway, Sweden or ISAF Ednannia.