KIEV, Ukraine — Through shared cigarettes, jokes and the same first name, Volodymyr Dzhiubynsky and Volodymyr Androshchuk grew closer on the battlefield fighting Russian forces in Ukraine, and also through their shared love of sports in their free time away from the front lines.
“We knew everything about each other and helped each other with everything,” Dziubynskyi, 28, told NBC News in September. It was one of several interviews he gave over the months leading up to June.
Dziubynskyi, a former rower, said he immediately hit it off with Androshchuk, a champion in the decathlon, when they completed military training together and the two grew closer through hand-to-hand combat.
Their bond was sealed when Androshchuk saved his friend's life for a second time.
As fierce fighting raged for the eastern Soviet city of Bakhmut on January 25, 2023, Dziubynskyi said her unit, the 95th Air Assault Brigade, was surrounded by Russian forces and bombarded with tanks and mortar shells.
He said they jumped into adjacent trenches, adding that when he awoke from his daze, he noticed he was bleeding from his nose and ears.
Then he heard screams from the other trench.
Eventually he managed to get to them. “I saw Vova immediately,” Dziubynskyi said, using a shortened form of their shared name.
“They're shooting at you and you just don't care. You just stand there, look down and see he's gone,” he added. “At that moment, tears started streaming down my cheeks.”
His survival instinct quickly kicked in when he realized he was in the crosshairs of a sniper.
“One of my armor plates was hit,” he said. “I screamed at the top of my lungs because it hurt like hell. So I pulled Vova to the other side and he became my shield.”
“He was beyond saving, but he could still save me,” he added.
Dziubynskyi laid his friend's body on his back and said the shots continued.
It was the second time that his friend had proven to be his guardian angel, Dziubynskyi said, adding that Androshchuk had already saved him from a Russian soldier in December 2022 when they faced each other in a trench and shot at him behind his back.
Sporty binding
Although it was the fighting that brought them together, it was their love of the sport that cemented their friendship after they met during a military exercise in November 2022, nine months after Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion.
Dziubynskyi, a rower who competed for Ukraine at the world championships, said he hit it off immediately with Androshchuk, who was a national youth champion in the decathlon, in which athletes compete in 10 track and field events.
“We were very similar in terms of stubbornness and strength,” Dziubynskyi said. “I shared my bullets with him, I taught him how to shoot, how to move through the forest and how to storm a position.”
Dziubynskyi, who worked as a policeman in his hometown of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine before the war, added that he had passed on some of the knowledge he had gained on the job to his new friend.
The two were assigned to the same unit as the anti-tank grenade launchers and deployed to the eastern Chinese city of Lyman, where they quickly became involved in the action.
“People were shocked by our teamwork,” Dziubynskyi said. “Vova and I prepared hellfire for the enemy.”
They once destroyed a Russian T-90 tank, he said.
Feeling invincible, they often teased the Russians in the trenches, shouting and cursing at them and playing Ukrainian pop music or the national anthem to intimidate them, he added.
“They say that athletes are like a big family. And that's really how it is. We understand each other,” he said. “We never thought about death. We wanted to live. We wanted to win this war together,” he added.
But that was not to be, as his friend was one of 488 athletes killed in combat since the war began, the Ukrainian Sports Ministry told NBC News last month.
Because of his past as a high-profile athlete, Androshchuk's funeral made national and international headlines, but Dziubynskyi was unable to attend as he was recovering from injuries sustained the day his friend rescued him.
He was sent to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, to recuperate. There, the dark days brightened when he met Oksana, a 26-year-old accountant who is now his fiancée. He said they planned to marry next month.
Back to the battlefield
Dziubynskyi said he told his commanders within months that he was ready to return to the front and was sent to the eastern Ukrainian town of Lyman on April 6, 2023.
Within three days, his life would change again when a Russian grenade exploded just a few meters away from him.
As pain raced through his body, the extent of his injury became clear when another soldier crawled toward him and told him, “Your leg is missing.”
In fact, he was hanging by a thread, but as the blood was pumped out of his body, fear set in, Dziubynskyi said.
“I was afraid to die because I saw a man with the exact same injury dying in my arms,” he said. “That scared me. I didn't want to die.”
He made it out and was taken to a hospital in Dnipro. But after regaining consciousness, Dziubynskyi said he had no feeling in his left leg, even when a doctor hit it with his fist. Doctors made it clear that amputation was the only option.
Dziubynskyi said he doubted he would have gotten out of the dark situation he was in without Oksana.
“For the first two months, she literally fed me. She picked me up and fed me. She washed my hair and my body. She did everything,” he said, adding, “She took me out of hell.”
Rudder return
Oksana helped him get stronger and his old passion for rowing also returned. According to Dziubynskyi, this helped him channel his grief and find a new focus, especially with the Paralympics in Paris approaching.
Although he trained hard, doctors decided that he could not be cleared to compete due to the initial injury.
Dziubynskyi was not discouraged and said it had made him even more determined to compete in the Los Angeles Games in four years.
“I want to prove that missing a leg is not a life sentence,” he said, adding that he would dedicate every victory to the man who saved his life. “For every medal I win, I will mention Vova,” he said.
Dziubynskyi, who always wears a bracelet given to him by Androshchuk's sister Lyudmila, added that he would never forget his friend.
“He is always with me and always will be,” he said.
Charlotte Gardiner and Richard Engel reported from Kyiv. Yuliya Talmazan reported from London.
