‘The fear disappears:’ How the Invictus Games help wounded Ukrainian veterans adapt to life after war

On either side of a basketball court in Kyiv, prostheses of various sizes rest alongside piles of water bottles, as two teams in wheelchairs fiercely compete for the ball just tossed up in the air to kick off the game.

The players — wounded Ukrainian service members and veterans — are training for the upcoming Invictus Games, an international sports competition for soldiers who have suffered life-altering injuries and sicknesses while fighting.

Among those players is Valerii Odainyk, a sapper of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade "Kholodnyi Yar," who lost his legs and some of his fingers in a mine explosion in January 2023.