RICHARD LLOYD PARRY | DISPATCH
Cancer and strokes won’t stop them defending Ukraine
Invalids are among the frontline fighters serving the Territorial Defence Forces
Captain Serhii Buzurny is digging trenches in southeast Ukraine despite his recent drastic surgery and a cancer diagnosis
RDMYTRO SYRENKO
The Times
When Serhii Buzurny had half his stomach removed, everyone except him assumed that his military career was over. It was the end of last year when he had cancer diagnosed; drastic surgery followed, and he was immediately invalided out of the armed forces. He lost 32kg (5st), and was reduced from a strapping bodybuilder to a slight, limping figure. And yet today here he is, digging trenches in southeast Ukraine, at the heart of the country’s battle against the Russian invasion.
“I’ve got a hernia,” he says. “I’ve got problems with my spine. My leg is numb but I don’t let my leg control my state of mind. They chucked me out on December 19, but the war started in February and the disabled
