He lost both arms, a leg, an eye, and part of his hearing. Then he woke up in his seventh hospital and decided to keep going.

Zakhar Biryukov first fought for Ukraine in 2015. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, he went back without hesitation.

On July 17, 2022, a helicopter his unit was dismounting from was hit by enemy fire. The explosion that followed took both his arms, his leg, part of his vision, and part of his hearing. In the days after, doctors gave no prognosis. Nobody was sure he would survive.
He passed through seven hospitals in two months.
He survived all of them.

Recovery meant relearning how to exist in a body completely different from the one he’d known his entire life. Prosthetics. Surgeries. Infections. Dependence. Pain measured in days, not weeks.
And through all of it, his approach never changed.

“It starts with a smile,” he says. “If you choose to be positive, it leads to good things. If you choose negative, it leads only to depression and no future.”

Today Zakhar paints landscapes using his prosthetic arm. He is pursuing a Master’s degree in psychology. He is a husband and a father — present, engaged, and redefining what those words mean every single day.
His wife Yulia says it best: “Zakhar was highly motivated and optimistic before the injury — and that’s exactly who he is today.”

War took nearly everything from his body.
It never touched who he is.