Vsevolozhsk, Russia: After losing his right leg on the battlefield in Ukraine, Dmitry, a former fighter with Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group, is walking again thanks to a new prosthetic limb.
With hundreds of thousands of soldiers coming back from the front wounded, Russia’s prosthetics workshops — like the one outside Saint Petersburg where AFP met Dmitry — have been filling up with ex-fighters.
Dmitry, 54, had already fought in Syria and for Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region before Russia launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.
He recalled his injury with a faint smile.
His unit was bombed as it tried to cross the Dnipro river.
