A man from Eastern Ukraine and living in Moscow was sent into battle on crutches, a Russian independent news outlet has reported. Igor Tishchenko, 53, a native of the Donetsk region of Ukraine and a resident of the Moscow region, suffered a spinal injury during exercises at a training ground.
He decided to fight for Russia in the war against Ukraine, but the injury prevented him from moving and turning his head normally. Despite that, he was sent to Avdiivka on crutches to an assault brigade and sent into battle. According to ASTRA, Tishchenko signed the military contract in October 2023 and got injured a year later. He then spent another month in Selidovo, from where he was taken to the hospital on a stretcher.
He spent nine months in total in hospitals and for another four months he was in a nursing home without medical care. During this time, he was diagnosed with coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus, Astra has reported. Tishchenko was supposed to be sent to the medical examination for decommissioning — the doctors wrote in their conclusions that the soldier was applying for category “D” (unfit). However, on November 7, officers of the military unit took him away from the Republican Center for Occupational Pathology and Rehabilitation in Donetsk, sending him to a combat unit in Avdiivka.
His wife Elena Tishchenko told ASTRA: “On the evening of the 7th, as he was in tights and slippers, they put him in a car and took him to Avdiivka. On November 8, around one o’clock in the afternoon, he contacted me for the last time and said: ‘That’s it, we’re on our way, we’re being sent.’ He hasn’t been in touch since. He’s alive there, inanimate, they just want to get rid of him.”
“What is he supposed to do there on crutches? He has now been sent to Avdiivka on crutches to an assault brigade and sent into battle. What kind of war do they want to win with the disabled?!” Elena said earlier.
Elena said that Maxim Semenich, deputy commander of the 1453rd regiment, has refused to write off her husband. Although Semenich had promised to appoint a medical commission, this never materialised, and he could not be reached by media.
In her efforts to seek help, Elena contacted the Russian Ministry of Defence, military and civilian prosecutor’s offices, the Presidential Administration, the Defenders of the Fatherland State Fund, and the FSB, but received responses from none of them.