By Galina Korol | 2024-01-04

KYIV -- A burn therapy face mask and compression garments on his legs and arms for 23 hours a day: this is what Roman Oleksiv must wear for at least six more months, and only then is there a possibility that doctors will let him remove them.

The nine-year-old's face, arms and legs are covered in scars after numerous skin grafts.

"Not once has Roman said, 'Dad, I'm not putting all of this on.' He understands that the longer he wears the garments, the easier it will be later for the plastic surgeons to fix his scars, which aren't expanding much thanks to the garments," the boy's father, Yaroslav Oleksiv, told Kontur.

Roman was the only person in a clinic in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, to survive a Russian missile attack in July 2022.

He has had more than 30 operations since then, with another coming January 25 in Dresden, Germany.

The doctors in Dresden know Roman well, as it was they who essentially pulled him back from the brink of death.

"In the beginning they gave no guarantees, while our [Ukrainian] doctors didn't even think they would manage to get [Roman] to Dresden because he was in very grave condition," Oleksiv said.

Forty-five percent of Roman's body was covered in external burns, while another 35% sustained internal burns. The burns were so deep that in some places they reached his bones.

Three shell fragments were stuck in his head, but doctors could remove them because they had penetrated only the first layer of the skull, said Oleksiv.

"Here in Dresden he had an operation every other day. We [Oleksiv and other relatives] were by his side day and night and rejoiced in every positive event, because for over a month his temperature was 40° C and the doctors couldn't fight the infections in his body -- the antibiotics weren't working," Oleksiv recalled.

A tragic day

Roman and his family saw their life change on July 14, 2022. The previous day, Roman and his mother, Galina, had arrived in Vinnytsia from Lviv to visit Roman's grandparents, and on July 14 they had an appointment at a clinic downtown.

Yaroslav Oleksiv recalled that he last spoke to his wife at 7.30am. They then exchanged text messages.

An hour before tragedy hit, she even took a photo with her son.

At 10.40am, Russian planes fired four missiles toward Vinnytsia. Ukraine's air defense downed two of the missiles, but the others landed in the city center. At exactly that moment, Galina and her son were inside the clinic.

According to Roman, when the first explosion went off, his mother told him to lie on the floor. But he had just barely closed his eyes before a second explosion occurred.

"He had already opened his eyes after the second explosion when everything was burning and there was smoke everywhere, and he said, 'I saw the door and knew that I needed to escape and if I stayed there, I'd die,'" Oleksiv said, recalling his conversation with his son.

"He said, 'I saw that Mom's hair was covered in rubble. I went over to her and stroked her hair, said goodbye and started to make my way out.'"

Roman could not feel his right leg or left arm, he told his father. He kept falling, crawling and trying to walk more.

"The biggest burns were on his backside and legs because that's where he sat and rested when he couldn't crawl farther ... the rubble was burning and scalding."

"When he reached the clinic's exit, people had already seen that he was there and they picked him up," said Oleksiv.

Because Oleksiv was in Lviv at the time, he heard about the tragedy in Vinnytsia through online news stories. However, he clung to the hope that his wife and child were in a shelter because he had lost communication with them.

"I called my in-laws and they had already left for the city center and started to call around to the doctors and hospitals. They asked if anyone had brought in my wife and child, and it took only a half hour to find Roman because he was able to tell them his name and whom he had been with," Oleksiv recalled.

Sole survivor

Searchers identified the body of Oleksiv's wife three days later, thanks to DNA analysis. She would have turned 30 last July 28.

Roman was the only survivor in the clinic.

More than 20 people were killed in the missile strike on downtown Vinnytsia.

It was not until nearly a week and a half after he emerged from a coma that Roman learned that his mother had died.

Psychologists had advised Oleksiv to tell Roman the news so he would not feel deceived or hope in vain for her return, said Oleksiv.

Roman remembered everything when he regained consciousness.

But when he was able to talk again, he asked "if the ambulances had come and if the fire trucks had come, because he thought it was still the same day as when the explosion occurred," Oleksiv said.

Since February 24, 2022, the Russians have killed 512 and wounded 1,158 Ukrainian children, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian ombudsman for human rights, told a committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the news site Ukrinform reported on December 15.

New dreams

Roman has not lost heart despite everything he has suffered, said Oleksiv.

After a series of complicated operations, the first thing Roman asked doctors was when he would be able to resume dancing and accordion playing.

It was a dream that came true: at the end of this past summer, Roman and his father took a short trip to Ukraine.

During the four months they spent in Lviv, Roman did not miss a single rehearsal for his courses in dance and accordion playing and even participated in competitions. He won first place in both categories.

"He loves to dance and play the accordion -- you never have to force him. For him it's simultaneously like a source of aesthetic satisfaction and a physical burden ... He's rebuilding the muscles that don't completely function in his left arm -- which was broken -- and you need to constantly develop those muscles at the juncture of the fracture," Oleksiv said.

In December, Roman lived out another dream when he traveled by plane for the first time and hugged Pope Francis at the Vatican.

"He wanted to draw energy from the pope; he knew that his treatment and operations are continuing, and at the same time he wanted to remind [the pope] about Ukraine and what's happening," Oleksiv said.

Now the most important thing is that "he not lose the desire and spirit to keep fighting, because if he keeps fighting, he'll overcome everything," Oleksiv said.