KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Mykola Kasiuk’s world plunged into near-total darkness when a land mine exploded on the battlefield with Russian troops.
asserted
mine → plunge → troops
The Ukrainian soldier lost an eye.
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soldier → lose → eye
He clings to hope that one day he will see with the other because he can still discern faint traces of light.
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he → cling → light
After two years and numerous operations, Kasiuk placed that hope with a visiting team of U.S. surgeons.
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Kasiuk → place → surgeons
Kasiuk crossed himself as he lay on a hospital bed before a recent surgery in Kyiv, praying for one thing:
“I want to be able to see my children again.”
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I → cross → children
Surgeons treat wounded soldiers while teaching Ukrainian doctors
Russia’s war in Ukraine has left soldiers and civilians with devastating eye and facial injuries.
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war → treat → injuries
But specialists who can repair the damage are scarce.
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who → repair → damage
Before the 2022 invasion, ophthalmic expertise in many Ukrainian hospitals rarely extended beyond basic procedures such as cataract surgery.
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expertise → extend → surgery
The U.S. surgeons treat complex cases while training Ukrainian doctors in oculoplastic surgery, from rebuilding damaged eye sockets to fitting artificial eyes.
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surgeons → treat → eyes
Local doctors had told Kasiuk that his vision was lost and recommended removing his remaining eye.
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vision → tell → eye
But he refused.
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he → refuse → ?
“No, I won’t let them,” he told his wife.
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he → let → wife
A soldier learns bit by bit to live without sight
Kasiuk trained as a military cook, not an infantryman.
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Kasiuk → learn → cook
Still, he was handed a rifle and sent into some of the fiercest fighting in eastern Ukraine.
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he → hand → Ukraine
His last visual memories are consumed by the war’s brutality in the Donetsk region: fellow soldiers killed, houses reduced to rubble, dogs wandering through ruins.
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dogs → consume → ruins
He could hear Russian soldiers’ voices nearby.
uncertain
He → hear → voices
The smell of death, he said, was everywhere.
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he → say → death
Kasiuk was walking with fellow soldiers on April 16, 2024, when he stepped onto something and fell.
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he → walk → something
His commanders later told his wife, Tetyana, that he stepped on the mine.
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he → tell → mine
He was placed in an evacuation vehicle that came under fire.
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that → place → fire
Almost everyone in the vehicle was killed.
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everyone → kill → vehicle
At a hospital, Tetyana saw a swollen man covered in shrapnel wounds, his face wrapped in bandages, his teeth shattered.
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teeth → see → bandages
“This is not my husband,” she told a hospital attendant.
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she → tell → attendant
Then she noticed the tattoos on his hands.
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she → notice → hands
Doctors removed one eye after shrapnel pierced it and they feared infection.
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they → remove → infection
They operated on the other but suspected its optic nerve was damaged.
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nerve → operate → other
Kasiuk moved between hospitals, undergoing repeated operations with little improvement.
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Kasiuk → move → improvement
He has slowly learned to live without sight.
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He → learn → sight
He uses an old mobile phone to make calls and listen to the news, and recently learned to style his own hair.
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He → use → hair
When Tetyana switches on a lamp, he tells her the faint light he sees grows brighter.
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he → switch → her
A surgery is performed under threat of Russian attacks
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surgery → perform → attacks
On surgery day, a nurse helped him into scrubs and wheeled him toward the operating room.
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nurse → help → room
He prayed aloud the entire way and asked her anxious questions about the procedure and if it would actually work.
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it → pray → procedure
The nurse told him not to worry, that he would be beautiful.
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he → tell → him
The surgeons were in Kyiv as part of Vision for Ukraine, a medical mission organized by the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine.
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surgeons → organize → Ukraine
They would not know the extent of the damage until they opened Kasiuk’s eye socket.
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they → know → socket
The immediate goal was to reconstruct Kasiuk’s socket and eyelids, restore his appearance and give him back some sense of normality.
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goal → reconstruct → normality
“The socket on the right is very contracted,” Seiff said.
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Seiff → say → right
To rebuild its lining, surgeons may use tissue from inside the mouth or behind the ear, or a freeze-dried amniotic membrane that promotes healing and limits scarring.
uncertain
that → rebuild → scarring
When sight cannot be restored, they can fit an artificial eye.
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they → restore → eye
…and 36 more, not listed.
The Aporia
