Aussie volunteer soldier returns to Ukraine after losing leg
The Australian volunteer soldier was fighting with Ukranian forces when he stepped on a landmine and had his leg torn apart. His next move is unthinkable.
A Queensland volunteer soldier who lost part of his leg fighting in the Ukraine war has made the brave decision to leave Australia and return to the battlefield, after less than six months at home.
Casey Gadaleta, 39, who has been fitted with a prosthetic leg, left Brisbane on a one-way ticket to Ukraine on Sunday, taking his bag and a jar of Vegemite with him.
The former steelworker from Caboolture was expected to touch down in Ukraine on Tuesday, 7News reports.
“They’re good people, it’s a good country and they need help,” he told the outlet.
Mr Gadaleta – whose call sign was “Dundee” after Crocodile Dundee – lost his lower left leg after he stepped on a landmine while fighting in enemy territory in Kursk in December.
The 39-year-old was serving in Ukraine’s 80th Brigade and his unit was approaching a target in the snow when he stepped on the antipersonnel mine.
“Literally like one step and there’s this bright light and I thought our guys accidentally dropped a grenade on me,” he said.
At first, Mr Gadaleta said he “didn’t feel anything” but when a voice yelled out to check if he was all right, he called back: “bro my leg’s gone.”
“He said what? I said ‘bro it’s gone’.”
When a fight broke out around him, he reached for his weapon, only to realise his hand had also been ripped apart.
His medic told him he would have to save himself by using his medical training.
“I’m begging them, I’m breaking down. I shouted, ‘I’m gonna die, I’m gonna freeze to death. I’m bleeding so much’.”
After spending 20 hours in minus four degrees temperatures without first aid, a blown-up leg, injured hand, and shrapnel in his arm and face, he was taken back to Ukraine and hospitalised.
But he claimed a three-week wait for surgery caused more damage.
“My leg died, it basically turned to a black colour. They had to amputate,” he said.
After returning home to Australia, he had a titanium and kevlar prosthetic leg fitted and underwent physiotherapy.
Now, he says: “I’m ready to go back”.
After touching down in Ukraine, he will spend his first weeks undergoing rehab at the world-famous specialist facility, Centre for Superhumans.
After his treatment, he could be deployed in logistics, drone aviation, communications or another area. But he said he would prefer a combat role.
Under Australian foreign incursion laws, it is an offence to “enter a foreign country with an intention to engage in a hostile activity” unless you are “serving in or with the armed forces of the government of a foreign country”.
Mr Gadaleta, who has a Bachelor of Science and two diplomas, first decided to volunteer for the Ukrainian Armed Forces after his friends serving in Ukraine sent him details of what he said were Russian war crimes.
“I was disgusted with it and I thought, how can a human being do that to another human being?”
“And I just thought, ‘I want to give my life to this cause’.”
He said he knew it wasn’t a “matter of if, but when” he got injured.
After paying for his own way to Ukraine, Mr Gadaleta underwent intensive training by the nation’s Armed Forces.
Now returning back to the war zone, he said he’s “not naive” to the risks involved.
“I understand it’s very dangerous,” he said. “I don’t want to die. But it’s possible, very possible.”
It’s believed at least seven Australians have been killed fighting for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion three years ago.
Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins has also been sentenced by Russia to 13 years in a maximum-security prison for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
Originally published as Aussie volunteer soldier returns to Ukraine after losing leg
