Severely injured and with his brigade encircled by Russian forces, Heorhii ‘Gosha’ Roshka would rather have fallen on the battlefield than be a burden on his unit.
The Ukrainian marine told a comrade to ‘finish me’ as the defenders of Mariupol tried to maintain their dogged resistance holed up in the besieged Azovstal steelworks.
As the war reaches the two-year mark today, he still bears the scars of battle but has an unshakeable belief in victory and of a ‘peaceful sky’ for his family.
Mistreatment in Russian captivity, losing his left arm and Russia seizing the initiative on the battlefield have done nothing to dent his conviction that Ukraine will emerge victorious.
‘Ukraine will win,’ Heorhii says. ‘For me it is not just faith or hope, it is confidence.
‘In this war, we give the most valuable thing – our lives and health.
‘We are fighting for the most valuable thing that humanity has – freedom and peace.
‘And in no case will we give up our goal. But how quickly we achieve our victory depends directly on the help of our foreign partners.
‘We are a strong and courageous nation, we know how to fight, but to fight such an insidious enemy, we need the help of our partners.
‘Regarding the future, I have only one dream – a peaceful sky of Ukraine for my family, and a happy childhood for my children.’
The 31-year-old was a grenadier with the 36th Separate Marine Brigade’s assault battalion as Russian forces and their proxies advanced on the southern port city in February 2022.
He was tasked with engaging the enemy in areas where they had broken through Ukrainian lines.
Heorhii first sustained a leg wound when an 82mm mortar shell exploded near him on the outskirts of the city as his unit ran into enemy troops while on a reconnaissance operation.
They managed to repel the invaders before fighting round the clock as they and other Ukrainian forces were surrounded by Moscow’s forces in the huge Azovstal steel mill, their final redoubt.
Despite his wound, Heorhii fought on as the defenders held out for weeks after the rest of the city had been captured in the brutal Russian assault.
‘We held our positions and repelled the attack of the occupiers,’ Heorhii says.
‘We fought round-the-clock, the battle did not stop for a minute. We were constantly under fire from every possible weapon, including mortars. ‘
Heorhii and his comrades endured hellish conditions in the bowels of the sprawling complex as heavy fighting raged, with civilians and severely injured soldiers being left to shelter as best they could.
‘It was freezing,’ Heorhii says. ‘Everyone arranged their place. Someone found a wooden board and slept on it, someone used a dirty rag. Everyone thought it was the end.
‘We understood that only a miracle could save us.
‘And the more the circle around Azovstal narrowed, the less hope remained for this miracle.’
The filthy basement where the soldiers slept lying next to each other also served as an emergency clinic.
‘Arms and legs were amputated in the same room where we were lying,’ Heorhii says.
‘The surgeons who performed these operations, were miraculously transported by helicopters to us through the encirclement. They cut off someone’s hand while everyone was watching and there was a bag with amputated limbs laid on the floor.’
On May 4, Heorhii was injured by an enemy shell for a second time, this time while in the vicinity of the huge plant, which was relentlessly pounded by the enemy.
‘I remember my friend yelling “OUT” before an explosion,’ he says, referring to the warning Ukrainian soldiers give when they hear the distinctive sound of incoming mortars.
‘This is a word that changed my life forever.
‘If my friend Vasyan hadn’t shouted and I hadn’t turned around, the shrapnel from the shell would have hit me right in the face. Instead, only my arm was injured.
‘The blood flowed like hell so I reached for my tourniquet and handed it to my brother.
‘He began to apply it but it wasn’t tight enough and he said, “shit, what do I do?”
‘I lost consciousness and when I came round I asked Vasyan to “finish me.”
‘Because I was the only one wounded, I didn’t want to let the whole group down.
‘Of course, he did not do this. The guys pulled me out and helped me get to the bunker.’
Heorhii was twice operated on in the squalid basement in order to save his life.
‘I and the other wounded were lying in a long, narrow room lined with beds that were three or four tiers high,’ he says. ‘The boys were rotting alive, they all stank, they all had some kind of infection.
‘I also had an infection, so a week later, the surgeons performed a re-amputation.
‘Another part of the arm was cut off at a higher level to save my life.’
On May 17, the defenders, numbering in their hundreds, received an order from the Ukrainian military command to lay down their arms, bringing the 80-day siege to a close.
Seriously wounded, Heorhii was taken to the pro-Russian enclave of Donetsk in the eastern Donbas region and kept in the 15th City Hospital.
‘They did not treat us well and insulted us both verbally and physically,’ he said of his captors.
‘Especially their commanders, they called us fascists and Nazis. They showed no humanity.’
Two thoughts kept the prisoner going before his release around a month later in a prisoner swap.
‘I knew my family was waiting for me,’ he says. ‘So I knew I had to endure all this and return to them.
‘I also had a crazy desire for revenge. I understood that I would not be able to fight myself, but I decided that I would train warriors to destroy the enemy.’
Heorhii is currently undergoing rehabilitation in Ukraine and preparing to run the TCS London Marathon on April 21 while aiming to return to take up a role as a military instructor.
He has also received treatment in the US, and uses a prosthesis.
Many of his comrades fell in the defence, or are at unknown locations within Russia’s detention system.
‘Unfortunately after being wounded I can no longer return to the battlefield and perform combat tasks as efficiently as possible,’ he says.
‘However, I have a strong desire to pass on my experience to guys who are ready to fight for our freedom and independence.
‘I am sure that my knowledge will help not only to train professional soldiers but also to save their lives in difficult combat conditions.’
Heorhii is guarded about his family’s identities and whereabouts in order to protect their security but is emphatic about the time he gets to spend with them.
‘My family is scattered all over the world as the war separated us,’ he says.
‘I haven’t seen many of my relatives for many months.
‘I don’t have the opportunity to spend enough time with my children, my wife, to pay enough attention to them. Every minute spent with them is happiness, a gift of fate.’
Heorhii is taking on the 26.2 miles together with his Marine Corps comrades Oleksii Rudenko and Slava Kulakovskyi, who have also needed amputations. He is running for his comrade Antatolii Zhumik, who was severely wounded on a combat mission in the Luhansk region.
The team is also supporting London-based charity British-Ukrainian Aid, which is sending ambulances and vital medical kit to the country and supporting Ukrainians affected by the war.
Support Heorhii’s fundraiser here
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