Two participants of the Aybolit: On the Way to Recovery project took part in the Kyiv Unbroken Marathon 2025 held last weekend. Dmytro Suschenko (52) ran a mile (1.6 km), while Oleh Samarsky (56) completed a half-marathon (just over 21 km). Both veterans dedicated their runs to Ukrainian hero Andriy Chubaray, who perished last year during an operation in Kursk Oblast.
Border Guards
Oleh and Dmytro knew each other before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as both served in the Donetsk Border Detachment. Dmytro was captured on April 12 at the Illich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, and Oleh on May 16 at Azovstal. After grueling months in captivity—each losing over 40 kg—they were freed in a prisoner exchange on January 3, 2024.
“After captivity, I weighed only 43 kg,” recalls Oleh Samarsky. “My legs were swollen from starvation. I could barely walk. I whispered when speaking—no strength left. I even needed help zipping up my jacket.”
Dmytro Suschenko was in scarcely better condition – his skin hung like a sack over his emaciated frame.
Both emphasize that, alongside nutrition, regular exercise—running, swimming, gym workouts—proved crucial to their recovery. Sport helped them “rebuild their bodies” and even achieve better physical shape than before captivity. “Sport gives life back,” Dmytro notes.
The veterans also highlight the importance of the Aybolit project, whose rehabilitation programs prioritize physical activity. “I’m deeply grateful to the project for helping veterans reintegrate after wounds and captivity,” says Suschenko.
Andriy
At school, Andriy was nicknamed “Genius”—a label used equally by classmates and teachers, half-jokingly yet half-seriously.
“We feel no shame speaking truth about our son,” wrote his mother, Tetiana, on September 19, 2025, days after DNA results extinguished their last hope. “Unfailingly decent, honest, and empathetic, with an acute sense of justice and self-respect. Intelligent yet reserved. He inherently rejected pretentiousness, falsehood, disorder, lies, and arrogance. An excellent student, prize-winner at school Olympiads, with diverse interests. Twice honored for his research papers at the Junior Academy of Sciences.”
Andriy earned his bachelor’s degree from Łódź University of Technology in Poland and planned to pursue a master’s. However, upon learning about deferment options for students, he postponed his academic ambitions and joined the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces. His father, Serhiy, recalls: “The mere thought that friends might interpret this as ‘evading duty’ was utterly unacceptable to him. He believed his multilingual skills and foreign education didn’t make him superior to those defending Ukraine at the front.”
Andrii fell on August 22, 2024, near Sudzha during the Kursk Operation.
His parents published their bank details for donations, directing most funds (UAH 60,000) to the Wings of Victory Foundation, which implements the Aybolit project. The remainder, combined with their personal contributions, went directly to medics on the frontline.
During the post-burial commemoration, many echoed the bitter truth that this war claims Ukraine’s finest. Andriy embodied this truth. Eternal memory to the Hero!
