Ukrainian with half his skin burned off is dubbed ‘world’s hardest dad’ after ditching rehab to join sons back on front

6 months ago 2

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A FEARLESS Ukrainian soldier who suffered burns to almost half of his skin has ditched rehab to join his sons back on the frontline.

Oleksandr R, 55, was severely hurt after a Russian drone blasted his trench in Ukraine.

Oleksandr R suffered burns to almost half of his body[/caption]

Oleksandr pictured with his partner Svetlana[/caption]

He was taken to Germany for treatment and has been recovering at the Hanover Medical School since January.

After several operations, the brave dad began walking again and took strolls through the clinic park with his partner Svetlana, 40.

But despite medics telling him still needs to spend time recuperating, the dad is now heading back to the trenches to battle against Russians.

Oleksandr – who still finds it hard to move his fingers – will be fighting alongside his son and stepson.

His partner had been at his bedside since he was moved to Lower Saxony in January and she fears for her children, named only as Viatcheslav R, 20, and Dimitri R, 18.

While Oleksandr was at the clinic, the two boys were drafted into military service.

The intrepid soldier told German media: “They are now fighting in the same unit that I was in.

“I won’t let them down, I want to fight alongside them against the Russian aggressor as quickly as possible.”

After just five months of treatment, he boarded a train along with Svetlana on Tuesday to head back to Ukraine.

Before leaving, Olexandr thanked the doctors, and said: “They saved my life and got me fit again so quickly. I am very grateful for that.

“It was great here in Germany and I would love to come back. With my sons when there is finally peace again in Ukraine!”

Olexandr, who worked as a taxi driver before the war, still had several weeks of rehabilitation ahead of him in Germany.

It comes amid fears Vladimir Putin is plotting to seize the Donbas region in just weeks as he distracts Kyiv’s forces on the northern front.

The new offensive in Kharkiv could be Moscow’s ultimate deception – stretch and distract Ukraine to finally conquer the prized eastern region as early as June.

Professor Michael Clarke, former director of the UK think-tank RUSI, argued that in coming weeks the Kremlin’s troops will pound the Donbas from the north and south in a pincer movement to take it all.

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This is the latest on the major new Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin has massed more than half a million troops on the northeastern front in a bid to overpower Kyiv’s stretched defences and battle-weary troops.

Ukraine is desperately trying to hold the line, but Russia has a significant advantage in manpower and munitions and is pushing their advantage, seizing miles of ground in days.

The blitz, said to be the first stage of Russia’s summer offensive, is designed to finally break through the stalemate by throwing troops into human wave assaults.

Royal United Services Institute war expert Dr Jack Watling told The Sun that unless Ukraine could muster more troops its prospects were bleak as Russia had “significant numerical superiority”.

Kyiv said the Russian push appeared to have run out of steam on Tuesday — but, in the face of Putin’s 500,000-strong force, warned that could change quickly.

On Wednesday, Moscow claimed its forces have pushed deeper into the Kharkiv region and captured the symbolic town of Robotyne – one of the only prizes of Ukraine’s muted summer counteroffensive.

Speaking to The Sun, he said that for over a month Russian forces have been stretching Ukraine all along its 600-mile front “putting pressure everywhere all at once”.

In a bid to beat Western weapons shipments arriving allowing Ukraine to strengthen its defences, Russia is on a “timetable to get something in the bag quick,” Clarke said.

“It’s a big semi circle and they’re trying to attack everywhere all at once,” he argued.

But the Kremlin’s ultimate plan, Clarke argued, is to once and for all conquer the whole Donbas region in Ukraine’s east.

On May 10, Russia kicked off a major new offensive in the northeast in the Kharkiv region after massing more than half a million troops that looked set to march west.

Ukraine is desperately trying to hold the line as Moscow throws troops into meatgrinder assaults, seizing key villages and towns in its fastest advance for months.

And yet, Clarke believes this is a cruel deception, designed to draw Kyiv’s troops north while the majority of Moscow’s troops actually prepare to swing east and march south.

He said: “It’s a two-pronged offensive as I see it.”