On Ukraine’s Independence Day, Wounded Veterans Swam Across the Bosphorus - and Inspired the World

 

It started with a simple question in a Kyiv swimming pool: What if we crossed the Bosphorus?

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For Ukrainian war veteran Oleh Tserkovnyi, that question became a mission. Months ago, during training, he imagined swimming the strait that separates Asia and Europe not for glory, but for meaning. If they did it on August 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day, the symbolism would be undeniable: Ukrainian soldiers, scarred by war, proving that even broken bodies can conquer impossible distances.

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When Oleh pitched the idea to his fellow veterans in their One for Another support group, no one hesitated. Amputations? Concussions? PTSD? None of it mattered. They would swim. Together.

Backed by the Superhumans Center, a rehabilitation clinic in Ukraine, and coached by amateur triathlon team CapitalTRI, they trained relentlessly. Their goal wasn’t pity it was purpose. They wanted the world to see their strength and to raise money for prosthetics, still desperately needed by countless Ukrainians wounded on the battlefield.

“We’re not asking for pity,” Oleh said. “We’re asking for support.”

On race day in Istanbul, more than 2,800 swimmers from 81 countries took part in the Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Race, a 6.5-kilometer (4-mile) crossing. The three Ukrainians swam among them, side by side.

It wasn’t smooth. Two of them, amputees, were almost barred from competing organizers wanted them in a separate category. But they pushed back. They weren’t just “disabled athletes.” They were soldiers. Survivors. Swimmers. And they proved it by finishing the race, each of them in over an hour.

For them, this wasn’t about endurance. It was about taking back control over bodies reshaped by war and showing the world that healing is possible.

Oleh knows this personally. Twice concussed by artillery fire while serving as a sniper, he lost hearing in one ear, peripheral vision, and balance. At times, he would suddenly tip over like “a pencil.” PTSD haunted him. Yet in the water, he found stability, discipline, and strength.

“Sport itself heals,” he said. “And the community pulls you through.”

Pavlo Tovstyk, a 47-year-old engineer turned soldier, lost part of his leg to a landmine. Swimming was something he sneaked into at first, against doctor’s orders. But it became his anchor. “Water became a kind of savior,” he said. “It brought me back to myself. Just… different.”

And for Oleksandr Dashko, 28, who also lost his leg to a mine, swimming was the only thing that pulled him out of depression. “When I do nothing, I slip back into that state right after the injury,” he admitted. “But when I find challenges like this, I get the jolt I need to keep living.”

In the end, the Bosphorus swim was not just a test of endurance. It was a declaration. These men carried their scars across continents, proving that resilience runs deeper than wounds.

On Ukraine’s Independence Day, their swim became a symbol not of pity, but of pride. Not of loss, but of survival.

As Oleh put it: “We swam to show the world that Ukraine’s spirit is unbroken.”

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