How Ukrainians are using prosthetics to create a country of ‘superhumans’

More than a year into Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, the country is working to create a society where wounded soldiers and citizens are viewed as superhumans, not victims.

Sitting on a bench outside the Superhumans Centre in Lviv, Ukraine, Serhii Kopyshchyk explains the five stickers on his right leg prosthetic socket.

There is an army cat standing proudly in front of the Ukrainian flag and one of a cat holding what looks similar to the Russian Moskva warship, which sank after a fire that was reportedly caused by two Ukrainian anti-ship missiles on April 14, 2022.

The cat is the mascot of a Ukrainian online bank and the stickers make the 25-year-old smile as he looks at them.

He lost both of his legs when he and his fellow brigade members were shelled between Mykolaiv and Kherson regions in July 2022, an area Global News reported from in August of last year.

“During the shelling I lost my left leg, it was torn off. My right leg was very badly damaged, then five shrapnel (fragments) in my right eye, damaged intestines and a punctured lung. The right side of my body was partially burned,” Kopyshchyk said as he touched the different areas as he listed off his injuries.

Despite it all, he calls himself optimistic.

Global News had just arrived at the Superhumans Centre and was about to head into the facility with the CEO when Kopyshchyk started to head down the two sets of stairs out front.

Olga Rudneva stopped to marvel at the site and quickly pulled out her mobile phone to document every step.