BENSONHURST — As two Ukrainian soldiers in the Diocese of Brooklyn work to adjust their lives after losing a part of their legs in battle, they have also discovered a more profound faith to help them along the journey.
Vitalii Fomenko, 37, and Hennadiy Degtyar, 47, are temporarily in the United States courtesy of Kind Deeds, a humanitarian organization that aids injured Ukrainians in America. The two men, who are staying in a Staten Island house, are driven into Brooklyn three times a week to undergo physical therapy at Prokinetics, a rehabilitation facility in Bensonhurst.
Degtyar, who lost his right foot, and Fomenko, whose left leg was amputated above the knee, are adjusting to life with prosthetics. The two men, who were friends back in Ukraine and are roommates here, are handling their situation with stoicism, refusing to dwell on their injuries.
“I am not thinking about the past. I need to think about the future,” Fomenko said.
The men, who recently spoke to The Tablet through an interpreter, joked that since Fomenko is missing his left leg and Degtyar his right foot, they need only one pair of shoes between them.
Fomenko and Degtyar, Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, said their ordeal has brought them closer to their faith.
“My faith, it has strengthened,” Fomenko said, noting that during their stay, they have visited churches on Staten Island and New Jersey to pray and meet clergy.
“Church, for me, is like emotional relief and calmness,” Degtyar said.
As the men take steps toward recovery, the war has entered its fourth year.
President Donald Trump is seeking to broker a peace deal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — after a testy Oval Office meeting with Trump — signaled his willingness for a 30-day ceasefire.
On March 18, President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin “about the need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.” The White House said the call lasted over two hours, and “both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace,” but no specific details were announced as of press time.
Fomenko and Degtyar are among 370,000 Ukrainian soldiers — a figure cited by Zelenskyy in a social media post late last year — injured in the war.
Fomenko, a construction worker, joined a civilian defense team days after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, before volunteering for military service. “I decided I wasn’t doing enough, and I needed to do more,” he recalled.
Fomenko was serving in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in May 2024 when he was hit by flying concrete that exploded after a Russian drone dropped a missile on a sidewalk near him. As a result, doctors later amputated part of his leg.
“I was on such high adrenaline and in shock. I was concentrating on what happened and helping myself,” Fomenko recalled, adding that he pulled out his cell phone to document his injury on video.
Degtyar, a financial planner who served in the same military unit as Fomenko, was injured in September 2023 by mortar rounds fired at the unit in a forest outside of Krasnohorivka, a city in eastern Ukraine. He lay in the forest for four hours before he could be evacuated.
Thanks to his training, Degtyar was able to put a tourniquet on his leg. However, he knew his injury was devastating.
“My foot was still there, but it was hanging off,” Degtyar recalled.
Ultimately, his right leg was amputated below the calf. He was fitted for a prosthetic, but “after only 10 minutes of using it, I already got a blister on my leg, and it set me back two weeks before I could even try again.”
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Ill-fitting prosthetics are a common problem in war-torn Ukraine, explained Dmytro Shevchenko, the clinical director of Kind Deeds.
Degtyar had heard about Kind Deeds and applied for assistance. After his application was accepted, he then applied for Fomenko. The two men were flown to the United States in late 2024 and settled into the Staten Island home that Kind Deeds rents.
Since it was founded in 2022, Kind Deeds has helped 54 people — 52 soldiers and two civilians — get fitted for new prosthetics and undergo physical therapy, all at no cost. Shevchenko said members derive satisfaction from helping wounded Ukrainians.
“They arrive here in America a lot of times in wheelchairs, on crutches, and then to see them walk, and some of them eventually run, is a very fulfilling experience,” he said, noting that approximately 30% of the soldiers return to the front lines with their prosthetics.
Degtyar, who is married with a teenage son, is eager to return to Ukraine to be reunited with his family. Fomenko, who is single, is technically still on active duty and must await the completion of paperwork to gain status as a veteran.
Both men are grateful for the help they have received here in the United States.
“There was so much negativity around me,” Degtyar said, “but finally a silver lining in my life appeared.”