When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, 21-year-old Nazar Kaihorodov made an agonizing decision: he helped his partner Viktoria and their son Yaroslav flee their home in Chernihiv and cross the border to safety. Then he stayed behind to fight.
“We were terrified for our son,” Viktoria recalls. “It all happened so quickly. They told us in the evening, and by morning, we were gone. I honestly thought we’d never see each other again. Leaving was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”
Nazar joined the Ukrainian armed forces and was soon sent to the front lines. For the first few months, the couple stayed in touch. But on July 10, 2022, Viktoria stopped receiving messages from him. Panic set in.
“He hadn’t written for two days. I tried reaching his brother’s wife, and his brother told me Nazar’s commander would call. When he finally did, he said Nazar was badly wounded. They found him covered in blood,” she said.
Nazar had suffered a severe head injury near Bakhmut. He had fallen into a coma that would last nearly two months.
“The first time I saw him, he was just lying there -- as if he wasn’t really there,” Viktoria says, sitting next to him in the Modrychi rehabilitation center in the Lviv region in western Ukraine.
She rushed back to Ukraine with their son and never left Nazar’s side. She spent hours next to him, holding his hand, talking to him, showing him photos of their little boy, Yaroslav.
“I kept talking to him about everything -- our life, our son. I started bringing pictures of our son,” she said.
"I knew he recognized me because whenever I had to go home, he'd cry," she adds.
Before he began fighting for his country, Nazar had planned to propose to Viktoria.
Now that he was out of a coma and beginning an arduous journey of rehabilitation and painful physical therapy, it was time to get at least one part of his previous life back on track.
Not long later, the two held a wedding inside the rehabilitation center, Yaroslav firmly at their side.
“I knew it would be very difficult,” Viktoria admits. “But I also understood, that if we are together, we’ll achieve something. We can overcome anything.”
Nazar now spends his days learning to speak again, to move, to live.
He can now use his right arm to hug his wife and child.
Viktoria smiles as she jokes about how he even nudges her now when he's angry.
“Despite everything -- his condition, his diagnosis -- he keeps trying,” Viktoria says. “Even when he’s exhausted, he still asks for the stretcher and says, ‘I’ll lift my legs.’ He inspires me.”
Nazar is already thinking about the future. He’s learning English. He dreams of simple joys -- of being a father again in the fullest sense.
“First, I will go fishing with my son,” he says. “Second, I will play football with him.”
Meanwhile, Viktoria is making plans too.
"When Nazar's condition improves, and we know it will, we want to get married again, this time in a church," she says as they both smile.
"After that we'll take beautiful photos, but for now, our focus is on his recovery."
