VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — For Ukrainian volleyball player and infantry officer Dmytro Melnyk, coming to Paris to compete at the Paralympic Games has come at a cost. He had to leave behind his platoon of 35 soldiers on the front lines of the war against Russia. Unable to call them for news because “they’re in the middle of hell” and unreachable from France, he says all he can do is hope there will still be 35 of them when he gets back.
Such is the heart-wrench for Ukraine‘s delegation of 141 athletes who are trying to remain focused on the chase for medals even as the Russian onslaught on their country means their minds are often elsewhere. Some tell themselves that they are doing their bit for the national cause by keeping Ukraine in the news with their sporting exploits. But it also quickly becomes apparent that the agonies of war came with them in their baggage.
As Melnyk told reporters his story Friday after his volleyball team’s opening match, his translator from the Ukrainian delegation broke down into tears. He’d been asked how many men and women he has under his command and his response, although delivered matter-of-factly, proved to be too bone-chilling for the translator whose overflow of emotion showed the war’s painful rawness for those trying to survive it.
“Thank God I don’t have women under my command. Not because they’re bad at fighting, but because it’s very scary to let women go into a…