Dmitry Afanasyev, 30, is training with members of the local Para ice hockey team, Soyuz, at an ice rink in Vladivostok, in the extreme east of Russia.
The athletes are seated in specially made sleds after taking off their prosthetic legs. They are moving around the arena with their hockey sticks.
Dmitry aspires to be a Paralympic ice hockey champion someday.
It won’t be simple to make that happen. Due to the conflict in Ukraine, Russian teams were not allowed to compete in the most recent Paralympic Games.
Dmitry was on the front line, just like the rest of his comrades.
As Dmitry remembers, “A mine came flying towards me,” he was called up to fight in Ukraine. “I felt my leg burning when I hit the ground.
