The woman turning amputees into ‘superhumans’

Serhiy Petchenko lost both hands while defending Ukraine from Russian invaders in June 2023.

After surviving the bitter months-long battle for the city of Bakhmut, his injury came in a railway incident further from the front line.

It left the 42-year-old feeling helpless and in despair. After the amputations, his wife, Anna, had to remain by his side 24/7 for six months.

“What helped us survive is our love,” says Serhiy.

But it’s hard to believe he went through such an ordeal when you see him now, standing on the doorstep of a brand-new café, which he is about to open in Lviv, in the west of Ukraine.

He smiles widely, his arms – and hands – by his side.

Serhiy received two prosthetic hands and full rehabilitation at the Superhumans Center, a private clinic for people with war injuries, located outside the city.

At the same time, the couple received the training they needed to open a family business.

Serhiy says the centre gave him a chance to return normal life, while learning to live with a new disability.

At least 50,000 Ukrainians have lost limbs in nearly three years of war according to the Ukrainian Health Ministry – both soldiers and civilians.

“Some people have double, triple, quadruple amputations. All these people will need prosthetics, or some will use wheelchairs,” says Olga Rudnieva, CEO and co-founder of the Superhumans Center.

Many amputations are the result of delays in evacuation from the battlefield. The barrage of incoming fire can be so intense that it may take many hours to get a wounded soldier to hospital.

With more than one million people on the front line, Rudnieva says, Ukraine will become “the country of people with disabilities”.

“We want to normalise disability. OK, that’s how the country is going to look,” she says, describing the thinking behind her centre.

“Most of the people here at the centre shouldn’t be alive. The fact that they are is a miracle in itself.”

Rudnieva co-founded the centre amid the Russian missile attacks that have rained down on the country since February 2022. Some people called her “crazy” but she went ahead anyway.

“If I have an opinion, I’m sharing my opinion. If I know what to do, I just go and do it,” she says.

Her partners and team raised funds all over the world for high-quality prosthetics and reconstructive surgery. Her passionate presentation, explaining how injuries can be empowering, turned some celebrities into Superhumans supporters, including British adventurer Bear Grylls, Virgin boss Richard Branson, singer Sting and actress Trudie Styler.

“We truly believe that you can be empowered by trauma. The trauma can ruin you or it can build your superpower,” she says.

The Superhumans Center supplements Ukraine’s military hospitals and clinics, which are overloaded with the constant flow of wounded soldiers from the 3,200km long front line.

Since it opened in April 2023, more than 1,000 patients have received treatment here – both military and civilian, adults and children. Almost 800 of them have received prosthetic limbs.

“It’s the global headquarters of resilience,” says 47-year-old Rudnieva. walking energetically between patients’ wheelchairs.

They are waiting for modern prosthetics or are already practising to use their new limbs.

She asks some of the young men around, with double and triple amputations, to show her what they have learnt so far.

Ukrainian soldiers use callsigns instead of names, and Rudnieva has one too – “Mum”.

“They learned to walk with their mothers, and I was the second person they learned how to walk with,” she says proudly.

At the start of the war, Ukraine was not ready to support so many people with disabilities.

“Ukrainian soldiers are less afraid to be killed than to be wounded, because a severe injury means you are going to be disabled for the rest of your life – and the infrastructure is not right, and society is not ready, and the healthcare system is not right,” says Rudnieva.

A few times a day she visits the rehabilitation room where the “superhumans”, as she calls them, are learning to walk again.

Among the battle-hardened men is gentle Olena, a bakery manager from the city of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine. She lost her leg in a Russian rocket strike on the way to her mum’s birthday party.

“The first thing I’ll do when I have my artificial leg, if the weather is fine, is just go for a walk. Without any rush, without an aim. I’ll just take a walk to recall how it feels,” she says.

At present she uses a leg that belongs to the rehabilitation room, but soon she will have one of her own.

Rudnieva remembers Olena’s story in detail, and the stories of her other patients.

She knows about their wives and husbands, parents and pre-war jobs. “Younger guys bring me their girlfriends and ask my opinion,” she says, with a smile.

Couples have even come came to her before taking a decision on whether to divorce or not.

A severe war injury is a challenge not just for the survivor, but for his or her entire family, and it tests relationships.

Showing the newly equipped children’s room, Rudnieva smiles.

“We are waiting today for Nazarchyk, Serhiy and Anna’s son. He is so active. He will turn it upside down.”

Rudnieva says that her work has taught her to value life as never before, and also to stop fearing death.

Once a director of the Olena Pinchuk Foundation, working to halt the spread of HIV/Aids across Ukraine, she was abroad when Russia invaded. For a few months she ran a humanitarian aid hub in Poland, then she returned to Ukraine and founded her life-changing project.

She wasn’t the only one. Ukrainian civil society quickly rallied round, both to support the war effort – fundraising for drones and vehicles, importing medical equipment or clothing – and to keep society going while the country fought for its life.

There are now other private rehabilitation centres, ambulances and taxis that help evacuate people from half-destroyed towns, food services for refugees, and many other initiatives that supplement services provided by the state.

And women have played a key role.

“When the full-scale invasion started, I, as a feminist, was very scared. I thought that it’s the end of feminism, because war is a very masculine thing,” Rudnieva says.

But later on she realised that women have taken over many responsibilities as men have gone away to fight, as well as in some cases becoming fighters too.

“I think that women proved to be absolutely amazing during this war,” says Rudnieva, as some of her words are drowned out by sirens – part of the soundtrack of Ukraine’s new life. “I’m really proud to be among Ukrainian women.”

BBC 100 Women names 100 inspiring and influential women around the world every year. Follow BBC 100 Women on Instagram and Facebook. Join the conversation using #BBC100Women.