When Andrii Gidzun and Vitalii Ivashchuk lost limbs fighting the Russian invaders of their country, the Ukraine-based Superhumans Center fitted them with 3D-printed “bionic” prostheses, robot arms designed to respond to the movements in their arm muscles. Now able to do simple tasks, like holding a coffee mug or putting on a shirt, both are already thinking about returning to the front and resuming their duties.
Their prostheses are called “Hero Arms,” and are produced by United Kingdom-based Open Bionics, which makes each arm to order based on the specific user’s shape. Two bioelectric sensors monitoring the muscle contraction control the Hero Arm and its bionic hand. Open Bionics has partnered with the Superhumans Center to deliver care to wounded Ukrainians through its three centers in Lviv, Dnipro, and Odessa.
Read: Two wounded Ukrainian soldiers just received bionic robot arms
Ivashchuk lost his arm while fighting off a tank assault near Bakhmut in June 2022. The Russian forces advanced on his position while he was just 200 meters away. He didn’t retreat. Instead, he attempted to take a tank crew by surprise. The wound he took to his wrist was devastating. He doesn’t remember what happened during the fight.
“I took a grenade launcher and decided to wait behind the bushes until they came out, but I lost the right moment,” he told the BBC.
His comrades applied a tourniquet, and he was rushed off the battlefield. To make matters worse, Russian cluster munitions hampered his evacuation. His arm had to be amputated.
His Hero Arm is a bespoke prosthesis. The Superhumans Center in Lviv took a cast of his wrist, which was then sent to Open Bionics in the UK for 3D printing. Once printed, each Hero Arm is put together piece by piece by a specialized technician. Sensors send signals from the wounded limb to a computer in the palm of the hand, which translates the movement.
Since the Superhumans Center is a nonprofit organization, the first two Hero Arms, given to Gidzun and Ivashchuk, were funded by Mastercard.
Ivashchuk was 24 years old and living in Poland when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2024. He immediately hopped on a bus to get as close to his hometown of Zhytomyr as he could. The closest he could get was a town 160 miles away. Still, within days, he was defending Zhytomyr and later, Kyiv. It was a dream he’d had since he was 15 years old.
Now, he is one of tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who suffer from complex injuries from Russian attacks. Many of the wounded will require specialized care, like new prosthetic devices.
For Ivashchuk, having a new bionic arm doesn’t necessarily translate into the ability to do everything he was once able to do. He noted to the BBC that he was unable to hold a coffee mug and a cigarette at the same time. But he was looking forward to a future that lets him do more.
“I’m going back to the frontline with my bionic arm,” he said.
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