Mac Hughes remembers the smell of diesel and the falling pain in his legs, hanging under a burning vehicle after a drone strike in the Zaporesia area of Ukraine on the day of Canada.
Al -Kalary, who signed a contract with the Ukrainian army a year and a half ago, was aware that it was withdrawn from under the car with what was found to be third -class burns.
Now, after spending nearly two months in a hospital bed, the 23 -year -old is trying to pay exhaustion because he takes his first steps as part of the rehabilitation program in the capital, Kiev.
“It is tired. It is a long and long process,” he said. “It is good to return to my feet after 53 days.”
Hughes, who originally came to Ukraine in 2022 to join his father in carrying out a human work with NGO embrace (Helping to support Ukraine at the level of al -Qaeda), she decided to join the army after she lost a friend who was also a soldier to Ukraine.
Now he is recovering after being wounded by one of the biggest threats on both the battlefield and in the Ukrainian cities: a Russian drone.
Hughes spoke to CBC News from a wheelchair after spending several minutes on crutches, as he had to read himself with every weak step.
Upon entry and exit from the rehabilitation facility, they were other young men, including many who lost the parties and were learning to adapt to the artificial limbs.
“For some of these men, their lives change forever,” he said. “I was really really lucky.”
A phone call overnight
When Paul Hughes spoke to his son on June 30, Mac told him that he was disappointed that he would not be able to attend the day of Canada, which Paul was organizing in the northeastern city of Kharkif, where the father’s duo who relied on his operations before Mac joined the army.
When an unknown number is called a Paul phone at 4:20 am on July 2, he said that he immediately felt that he was punching in the intestine.
“I will never forget that. I knew … when I looked at the phone,” Paul said.
He raced to capture Mac girlfriend, Lisa Rudchenko, and they set out to Zaporesvia who did not really know the situation in which he was his son until they entered the hospital room and saw him covered with dressings.
“It was useful to see my child this way,” Paul said. “It was a chaos. They didn’t really clean it properly, and it was very horrific.”
When Hughes saw that his father was walking in his room in the hospital, he recalled that she was the first time he saw him crying.
The father and the bilateral son
Most of that time, Paul lived in a mobile housing vehicle donated, which could be easily recognized in parking lots in hospitals because of the Canadian flag recorded to the cover.
Paul, an inventor of the Canadian army warriors, initially traveled to Ukraine in 2022 to take up arms against Russia but decided to mutate after seeing the human need.
Along with his son, humanitarian missions, including the risky civil evacuation operations, which mean at some point being interrogated by Russian soldiers at gunpoint when he entered the occupied territories.
When Mac told him that he wanted to do more to help Ukraine and join her army, Paul admits that he is inconsistent. Their humanitarian work was dangerous, but work during an active war along the sprawling front line at another level.
At least 11 Canadians He has been killed in the region since Russia was widely invaded in 2022, according to global affairs.
The suffering of the memories of the past
Mac Hughes will not reveal the nature of his work with the army, but he said he was associated with a variety of tasks, including leadership.
He said that the drone that caused the explosion served as a kind of self -destruction of drones launched by Russia in waves in Ukrainian cities.
““Maybe it was one of the most important voices I heard in my life,” Hughes said.
A man from Calgary, who was working with the Ukrainian army, was seriously injured due to a squadron of Russian aircraft aircraft on the front line on Canada’s day. He is now recovering from third -class burns at Kyiv Hospital.
When KYIV drones targeted standard numbers throughout July, the fateful tinnitus hughes kept waking up in his hospital bed, where he suffers from the memories of the past.
Hughes is still in hospital, where he receives mental health support along with physical therapy.
During the weekend, a fundraising campaign was held in a bar in Kiev to help collect funds to cover the expenses of the Hughes family. Mac estimates that it may take a few months before returning to walking on his burned legs and scars, which are still covered with dressings.
Emotional tattoo
On his right arm, he indicates the burning of the least risk of a dear tattoo depicting a compact maple leaf with the Ukrainian Trident, on the blue and yellow colors of the country’s flag.
He obtained it a month after his arrival in Ukraine. He had only planned to stay one month more; It has now passed three and a half years.
“So I fell in love with the country,” he said. “The places we were going to, the villages we see, and the people we were helping them.”
For this reason, he felt comfortable when he followed a day after the day of drones, and saw that the tattoo remained completely intact.
“They took off the bandage, and the first thing I said is,” Ukraine always remains alive. “
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