{"id":248853,"date":"2026-05-30T16:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248853\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:21:08","slug":"kind-deeds-a-staten-island-nonprofit-helps-wounded-ukrainian-soldiers-find-recovery-after-battle-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248853\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Kind Deeds,\u2019 a Staten Island nonprofit, helps wounded Ukrainian soldiers find recovery\u00a0after battle trauma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the full-scale invasion in Ukraine, a Staten Island<\/a>-based Ukrainian nonprofit has brought over 50 wounded soldiers to the United States to help them through their rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Kind Deeds<\/a> originally began with President Oleksandr Rubstov helping Ukrainians cross the border into Poland. However, after witnessing many refugees with missing limbs, Rubstov decided to partner with Dmitry Shevchenko, Clinical Director of ProKinetics Physical Therapy<\/a>, to create a non-profit with a mission to help wounded soldiers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brought our first soldier in October 2022, and now we\u2019ve had already over 54 patients treated throughout our organization here in New York,\u201d Schevchenko said.<\/p>\n

Kind Deeds offers its services completely free to patients, including prosthetics, physical therapy, housing, and food, which are paid for through donations.\n<\/p>\n

However, donations have not been enough to sustain the influx of soldiers in need of treatment.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had, you know, 12 soldiers at a time in 2023. Now we have only one, and one joining in December. We had two family houses\u2026 Now, we only have half of that house,\u201d Schevchenko told amNewYork in December.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"prostheticMany soldiers receive prosthetics before arriving, but they are typically mechanical, whereas Kind Deeds uses bionic-powered prosthetics.Photo by Emma Delahanty<\/p>\n

Konstantin Smagliy, 34, originally from Donetsk, Ukraine, had his leg amputated due to the trauma he endured in a night of battle.<\/p>\n

After being in the city of Donetsk, he was called to support another unit during a Russian attack, where he ended up under Russian fire.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lying with night vision equipment, and part of my leg was blown off,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I opened my eyes, I realized I was alone, 300 (injured), and Russians were close by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smagliy\u2019s leg was dislocated after the attack.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI laid there and thought that was it. I put the tourniquet on in time,\u201d he said. \u201cI waited for an hour and a half and then our guys picked me up.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

After receiving treatment from doctors in Ukraine and Poland, Smagliy was told he would have to have his leg amputated. But his knee joint was not recovering well. And after months of treatment, he heard of the NYC-based center.<\/p>\n

Not long after his wounds began to heal, he came to NY for a prosthetic.\n<\/p>\n

Schevchenko said, \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t make a prosthetic within the first three months; you have to make sure the limb shapes properly, everything heals.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

During patients\u2019 stay in NYC, they rotate between Staten Island University Hospital and ProKinetics Physical Therapy in Bensonhurst.\n<\/p>\n

On Smagily\u2019s second visit to the Bensonhurst location, his session focused on cupping therapy, treadmill exercises, lunges, and squats.\n<\/p>\n

Re-adjusting to walking on a prosthetic, Smagily had to walk forward, sideways, and backward for five minutes. But he had difficulty with lunges and squats because of his loose prosthetic, which Kind Deeds was in the process of fixing.<\/p>\n

Vladislav Kuzmich, 25, from Kyiv, spent two months with Kind Deeds, receiving treatment after his leg was amputated in 2024.\n<\/p>\n

Kuzmich lived on the front lines for a month in the Donetsk region when his accident occurred.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were waiting for a command to relocate to another position, on the edge of the village, where Russians wanted to enter the village,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in the garden, in the grass, I didn\u2019t see the butterfly mine and stepped on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuzmich hid in a bush after successfully wrapping his leg around the tourniquet, waiting for help.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI could hear gunshots from Russians, 50 meters from us, and our people fighting back and fighting back,\u201d he said. \u201cI waited seven hours. On the seventh hour, they found me, it started raining. They drove me immediately, took me to Dnipro, and I woke up without a leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

After receiving help from Superhumans<\/a>, a Ukrainian trauma center specializing in prosthetics, he submitted an application to Kind Deeds and arrived in the fall of 2025.<\/p>\n

Not long after receiving a new prosthetic leg and going through consistent physical therapy, Kuzmich returned to Ukraine to readjust to life with his wife and eight-year-old son.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to adapt to our new life as a family,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Many soldiers receive prosthetics before arriving, but they are typically mechanical, whereas Kind Deeds uses bionic-powered prosthetics.\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0The difference, Schevchenko explained, is like having a mechanical car or an automatic; it\u2019s \u201ca lot easier for them to walk using that type of prosthetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0While physical therapy is a core process during Kind Deeds rehabilitation, mental health treatments are not strongly suggested; many of the soldiers do not take up the offer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe problem with Ukrainian culture versus Western culture is very different. Talking, you know, discussing your emotions, your feelings, it\u2019s taboo topic, especially among men,\u201d Schevchenko said. \u201cBut the more time you spend with them, the more you see them, those signs and symptoms, they show differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0A 2025 Wiley<\/a> study found that out of 590 active duty military personnel, 45.9% were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

Schevchenko said he has been told by several veterans, \u201c\u2018What can she (psychologist) possibly tell me, she\u2019s never been in my shoes, right?\u2019 That\u2019s why talking to someone who\u2019s been in their shoes, experienced something similar and how they overcame similar issues is very therapeutic.\u201d<\/p>\n

With many failed fundraisers and a lack of donations, Kind Deeds struggles to maintain its original influx of patients.\n<\/p>\n

Neither Schevchenko nor Rubstov gets paid for the work they do, but paying their volunteers is very important to them so they can build a strong team.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think organizing and structuring it properly and having these places for soldiers to get treatment is our biggest barrier right now,\u201d Schevchenko said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the full-scale invasion in Ukraine, a Staten Island-based Ukrainian nonprofit has brought over 50 wounded soldiers to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[97181,97182,85462,9,24,97183,8434,63,97184,97185,94065,97186,134,136,135,9047,97187,97188,97189,97190],"class_list":["post-248853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-bionic-prosthetics","tag-fundraising-challenges","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-healthcare","tag-nonprofit-organization","tag-nyc","tag-physical-therapy","tag-prosthetics","tag-ptsd","tag-rehabilitation","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-ukraine-war","tag-ukrainian-veterans","tag-veteran-recovery","tag-war-injuries","tag-wounded-soldiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}