The city was liberated by Kyiv just a month after Oleksandr was seriously injured while defending the nearby Ukrainian position.
"I felt the earth shift onto me. I felt a terrible pain in my legs and realised that it would mean the amputation of my legs," he said.
"I screamed from horrific pain and shouted for people to hear me.”
He says he knew his comrades were alive, and they dug him out of the ground and provided first aid. But that’s when he knew his legs were badly hurt.
"I understood that I had lost my legs at the moment of injury, two or three seconds after I felt the pain.”
Oleksandr survived but much of Izyum was left in ruins. At the time, authorities said they had found more than .
