Andrii Savenko had to find motivation deep within himself when he learned to walk again.
The 41-year-old Ukrainian soldier was severely injured during a mine explosion in 2024 while fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war. He said he needed a prosthetic joint in his leg and plenty of physical therapy to recover. A “champion” mindset is the only way he was able to make it through.
Two years later, the progress he’s made is so substantial that ran a 10K at the Soldier Field 10 on Saturday. He was joined by about 10 Ukrainian service members who traveled to Chicago for Memorial Day weekend.
They told the Tribune that they hoped to honor both fallen American and Ukrainian service members on the holiday as the war in their homeland continues.
“It’s a good chance to be together with my comrades as a veteran, active duty wounded soldiers,” Savenko said through an interpreter. “And it’s a good opportunity … to share the challenges we face every day in terms of recovery.”
Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago, unleashing Europe’s largest conflict since World War II. A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies earlier this year estimated that nearly 2 million soldiers on both sides have been killed, wounded or missing during the war.
Ukrainian forces likely suffered around 500,000 to 600,000 military casualties between 2022 and 2025, the report found, which includes up to 140,000 deaths.
One of those soldiers is Myhailo Yavorskyi, a Chicagoan who was killed in eastern Ukraine in 2023, leaving behind a wife and young daughter. Yavorskyi had returned to defend the country he was born in as a volunteer soldier.
“At that time, everyone was fleeing from Kyiv — and he was going toward Kyiv,” his mother Maria Yavorska, who lives on the Northwest Side, told the Tribune earlier this year.
Retired Maj. Gen. Volodymyr Havrylov, Ukraine’s former deputy minister of defense, said he didn’t know Yavorskyi personally but he does know his story. It’s a “very emotional” one, Havrylov said.
“It’s not easy for Ukrainians at the time to imagine that somebody from United States — a very comfortable country with everything to live peacefully — decided to join our defense … and sacrificed himself,” he said. “It’s important to us that there are people in the world ready to join.”
Yavorskyi was recognized at Saturday’s race in its “Circle of Remembrance.” The run honors “the courageous service members who sacrificed everything for our freedom,” its website says. There’s a 10-mile and 10-kilometer option.
The delegation laid a wreath Saturday to honor Yavorskyi at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery.
Vera Eliashevsky, the co-chair of Chicago Sister Cities International’s Kyiv Committee, said she sees a clear connection between fallen U.S. and Ukrainian soldiers. Eliashevsky helped organize the delegation with other Ukrainian veteran and community organizations.
“It’s all about sovereignty and freedom,” Eliashevsky said, adding, “These people are fighting for freedom. Not only for Ukraine, but for the world.”
Adrienne Tongate, the executive vice president of global strategic initiatives at World Business Chicago, likewise said the visit reflects the “enduring power of citizen diplomacy” on Memorial Day weekend.
“We honor not only their sacrifice and resilience, but also the deep human connections that unite our global communities through service, remembrance, and a shared belief in freedom and peace,” Tongate said in a news release.
Havrylov said he’s met numerous Americans who joined the war effort in Ukraine. Savenko also said he was on a mission with an American — in one trench.
“I see people like him as mega-patriotic, who hate unfairness in the world and they decided to join us and support us in the fight against Russia,” he said. “It motivated me even more.”
It’s impossible to say exactly how many Americans signed up to fight because the Ukrainian military doesn’t release this figure, according to reporting in The New York Times. But independent estimates place the number to more than 1,000. A curator at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War estimated in September 2025 to The New York Times that at least 92 Americans have been killed in combat in Ukraine.
Pavlo Didychenko, who works for the Ukrainian defense company Infozahyst, which sponsored the visit, also said there’s at least two Americans working at the company.
“It’s not only our war. We protect other countries in this war,” the 41-year-old said. “Other dictators could see, ‘Oh, it’s OK we can do the same.’”
President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he believes Moscow and Kyiv will soon reach a deal to end fighting, however Russia soon after fired at least 800 drones in a massive daytime barrage across Ukraine.
‘A symbol that we are together’
In Chicago, the visiting service members also participated in events that celebrated Ukrainian culture, including visits to Chicago’s Ukrainian National Museum and Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.
On Thursday, they wore embroidered shirts for Vyshyvanka Day, a holiday that seeks to preserve Ukrainian folk traditions. Havrylov said the day has become popular in Ukraine since the invasion.
“It’s a signal that we are together, that we share the same values,” he said. “It’s a day of unity.”
They also visited with students at St. Nicholas Cathedral School in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood on Friday afternoon for a prayer service. They joined in both the U.S. and Ukrainian national anthems. Students then sang Ukrainian songs and shared the stories of some of the soldiers in the crowd. At the end, they prayed for peace in Ukraine and around the world.
Diana Khomyshyn, 12, is a seventh grader at the school who helped put together the assembly. While she doesn’t speak Ukrainian fluently, she said she was able to share more about the school with the soldiers.
She said her grandma talks to some of her family members who still live in Ukraine every day, and that she hopes she was able to represent the country well.
“It makes me feel connected to them, because they’re all speaking Ukrainian,” she said. “It makes me feel more Ukrainian in a way.”
Keeping memories alive
Since retiring, Havrylov, 68, has spent much of his time on the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers through the Veterans Dozen Foundation. He said soldiers, who often have lost limbs or their eyesight, run in different events throughout the world, including several times in Chicago.
Chicago, in particular, is a good location for recovery because it’s a “beautiful place,” Havrylov said. There’s also deep connections to Ukraine in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood that helps raise awareness of the war, he said.
“It’s one of the best mental recovery for them through physical efforts,” he said, adding that they start with a 10K but many go on to run marathons.
Sports have been a large part of Savenko’s recovery. He competes in and has won championships in hand-to-hand combat in addition to running. He’s trained every day for Saturday’s race, he said.
“You feel each step you’re doing, which is painful,” he said of running. “But my character gives me the will to succeed. Each Ukrainian has the spirit and the will.”
Savenko said he enlisted in 2014 after Ukraine’s pro-Western uprising to thwart Russian influence on the fledgling democratic nation. During the final days of the revolution, Russia occupied and seized Crimea from Ukraine, a precursor to the war that is ongoing today. Savenko said he initially served in combat units until he was injured.
Since Russia’s invasion, Havrylov said war has in a way become the reality of their everyday lives. Savenko said his son, who is 9 years old, hasn’t known true peace.
“We adjusted our life to the realities of Russian, at least, drone attacks — sometimes ballistic missile attacks,” Havrylov said. “The sound of an air-raid alarm is (a) normal sound.”
Savenko said he can relate to the purpose behind Memorial Day in the U.S. In Ukraine, he said they spend time telling the stories of fallen soldiers — some of whom were his friends — at sporting events.
“If the memory of them is alive, they are alive as well,” Savenko said.
Tribune reporter Angie Leventis Lourgos and The Associated Press contributed reporting.
