'A feeling of freedom': Injured Ukrainian soldiers learn to ski in Whistler for Invictus Games

Serhii Khrapko, a Ukrainian soldier who lost his left arm and leg during fighting in Bakhmut in 2015, says it's his responsibility to show what life after combat injuries can look like, as fighting rages on in his country.

As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle marked one year until the 2025 Invictus Games begin in British Columbia on Wednesday, Khrapko was at Whistler Blackcomb flying down a run at the winter resort in a sit-ski — a single-ski device for wheelchair-users — as he trains to represent Ukraine at the Games next year.

"It's a feeling of freedom," he told CBC News in Ukrainian on Tuesday, speaking through his team manager and fellow ex-soldier, Taras Kovalyk, who acted as interpreter.

"It's about [being an] example for those who are beginning to come back to restore their health."

It's been almost two years since Russia invaded Ukraine in a significant escalation of the long-running Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The number of casualties and injuries on both sides has been difficult to verify, but in August 2023 a report by the New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. officials, put the number of wounded Ukrainians as high as 120,000.

With the bitter Russian invasion grinding into its third year, the number of injured Ukrainian soldiers grows every day, Khrapko said. Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are barred from leaving the country and must register for military duty.

Currently, only men who are 27 and older can be called up to fight, but at the end of 2023, Ukraine proposed lowering that age to 25 after the military said it needed as many as 500,000 new soldiers to replenish its armed forces.

Khrapko was 37 when he almost died after getting hit by Russian shelling nine years ago. He's now 46