Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lay at the bedside of seriously injured soldiers in his army in a New York hospital on Monday evening, but he encouraged them to quickly return to Ukraine to defeat Russia. At Staten Island University Hospital, the smallest district in the megacity, the leader spent a few minutes in custody under the tightest security measures of American law enforcement with some of his men who had their legs or arms amputated and were severely disabled.
“How are you doing? Is it hard?” the Ukrainian president asks one of his men, dressed in his khaki sweatshirt and pants. “It’s okay,” the seriously injured young soldier, originally from Zaporizhia, replies simply. “Stay strong!” Volodymyr Zelensky tells him. He then turns to the small group of Ukrainians treated in this American establishment: “We are grateful to you and proud of you,” he tells them in Ukrainian.
According to leaders at Staten Island University Hospital and the Ukrainian-American NGO Kind Deeds, nine Ukrainian patients are currently being treated and a total of 35 have been treated since last October. Volodymyr Zelensky presented each of the soldiers, one of whom was visibly very weak in a wheelchair, with an award, before being photographed and filmed with the group of wounded and their carers.
The Ukrainian head of state emphasized that he had “never seen people who wanted to return home so badly.” “We are waiting for you all to return home. We absolutely need every one of you, every reliable Ukrainian fighter, to defeat our enemy,” he stressed, saying he was “convinced” that victory over Russian forces was “obviously imminent.” “I wish you victory and return home. “Glory to Ukraine!” Volodymyr Zelensky said again, to which the soldiers responded unanimously: “Glory to the heroes!”