Paralympics 2024: Ukraine’s preparations amid war

Other athletes have found their own ways to contribute to the war effort. Wheelchair fencer Andrii Demchuk crossed the border to Poland with his wife and two children after the invasion.

After settling his family in Warsaw, he began helping other Ukrainian refugees. He ferried them from the border to the Polish capital, before returning with tents, sleeping bags and equipment for the Ukrainian army.

He also delivered jeeps to the border – albeit in unconventional style. As a leg amputee, Demchuk normally drives an automatic. The jeeps were manual.

“It was a bit of a problem because I don’t have a leg to push the clutch,” he says.

So – ingeniously – he used his fencing sword instead. “A broken rapier can push the clutch perfectly,” he explains, demonstrating his technique with an imaginary sword.

“I delivered seven jeeps this way.”

Together with two Polish fencing friends, Grzegorz Pluta and Stefan Makowski, he also began visiting local schools.

“We realised we needed to bring Polish and Ukrainian children together,” Demchuk says.

“The Ukrainian kids were traumatised – and there were some differences.”

They visited around 40 schools – and talked to about 10,000 children.

“We wanted to show the kids how sport can take your mind off your problems and that people who are disabled don’t give up and can still break barriers.”

At this point, Demchuk realised that if he didn’t return to training, he wouldn’t qualify for the Paralympics, so Pluta and Makowski invited him to train at their club in Warsaw.

Most of Ukraine’s Para-fencers are in similar circumstances, having had to leave their homeland. Demchuk trained one of his team-mates – Nadiia Doloh – after her coach was unable to follow her to Poland.

Despite the disruption, Ukraine’s Para-fencing team finished top of the medal table at this year’s European Championships.