When Shota Bitadze returned to the trenches in Ukraine, months after being severely wounded, he attempted to keep the extent of his injuries secret from his comrades.
“At first no one knew I was missing my limb because I put a glove over my prosthetic hand,” he told RFE/RL. “But when I moved my [bionic] limb it made a small noise and the guys started to wonder where the sound was coming from.”
The Georgian fighter then revealed an advanced prosthesis, worth tens of thousands of dollars, that is able to function with the dexterity of a slow-moving human hand.
“When I took off the glove and they saw it everyone was shocked,” he says.
Bitadze, 26, hails from Khashuri, a town in central Georgia. He worked in construction and as a children’s entertainer before Russia launched its full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“When the war started I felt strongly that I needed to contribute something,” he recalls. Within three weeks of the invasion, he was inside Ukraine and soon became one of the hundreds of Georgian nationals believed to fighting on Kyiv's side in the conflict.
Bitadze’s right hand was destroyed in a blast in eastern Ukraine in March 2023, which he says is yet to be explained. “I don’t know the details of what happened that day so I’m not talking about it yet.” he explains.
After his arm was amputated below the elbow, Bitadze was fitted with the advanced bionic hand and rehabilitated through the Superhumans Center, a charity that fits amputees with prosthetic limbs in Ukraine.
"Losing your hand is a huge stress,” he says. “But I just set one goal for myself: to get back to the front lines and continue what I’d started in 2022."
He returned to battle in February 2024, and swiftly adopted the predictable nickname, “Terminator.”
Max Ortiz-Catalan, a pioneering bionics professor told RFE/RL that, however advanced a prosthetic limb, amputees engaged in warfighting are at a distinct disadvantage. “It’s definitely something very brave to do,” he says.
Ortiz-Catalan, who currently volunteers in Ukraine assisting amputees, says the main issue is the reliability of the devices. “If you are doing something at home and your prosthetic hand stops working or does something different than you expected, it might delay you a bit and cause some frustration. However, if you are on the front line, the consequences can be much more catastrophic.”
Videos shared on Bitadze’s social media pages show him firing weapons using his bionic hand and navigating front line trenches.
The Georgian fighter says he is able to fire precisely with his bionic arm when shooting from a stationary position. But when there is any kind of chaotic battlefield dynamic, “for example when you have to run and pay attention to a lot of things,” the prosthesis becomes less dependable.
The German-made robotic limb used by Bitadze is linked directly to his nerves, enabling the same muscles that would manipulate a hand to send electrical signals to the robotic limb. The battery-powered prosthesis is able to translate those signals into mechanical movements, including the manipulation of individual fingers.
Bitadze is not the only Georgian fighting in Ukraine after suffering life-changing injures. Zurab Jibuti, from the Georgian Legion in Ukraine lost both of his legs during an incursion into Russia’s Belgorod region by Ukrainian-linked forces in 2023. He has since rejoined the fighting to serve as a machine gunner on an armored vehicle.
“I returned to service because the the war isn’t over and the Georgian Legion needs experienced soldiers,” he told RFE/RL, adding that the hardest thing about fighting as a double amputee is “knowing that you have limits and you can’t do as much as you could before -- limits that are physical not mental.”
Pryncyp, a human rights organization representing Ukrainian soldiers, estimates that as many as 50,000 fighters have had limbs amputated as a result of injuries from the war. A recent report on amputee soldiers in Ukraine indicated that many of them planned to keep fighting or had already returned to the front.
On the Russian side, reliable statistics are impossible to pin down, but Kremlin officials have said that around half of all badly wounded Russian soldiers have required amputations. Several distressing videos have recently emerged showing Russian soldiers on crutches allegedly being sent into battle in Ukraine.
For Bitadze, the return to the front is voluntary, and he says responding to confusion from able-bodied soldiers about why he rejoined the fight has been easy.
“I just tell them I’m here for the same reasons you are,” he said. “It’s simple.”
