Russia plans to open rehabilitation centers in all eight of its federal districts for soldiers who lost limbs in the war in Ukraine, the Vedomosti business daily reported Monday, citing the state-run Defenders of the Fatherland foundation.
The foundation did not give a timetable for opening the facilities. The first center is already operating at a Russian State Social University site in the Moscow region and has served 650 veterans.
Deputy Defense Minister Anna Tsivilyova, who has been reported to be President Vladimir Putin’s cousin, said the center teaches former soldiers how to use prosthetic limbs in everyday life.
One participant told Vedomosti that veterans learn to walk with prostheses and take part in adaptive sports. But some arrive without a finished prosthesis or with one that no longer works, he said.
The man, who was mobilized in 2022 and lost his entire right leg at the front, said he now uses ropes to secure his broken prosthesis to his body so he can practice walking.
He said all 28 men at the center had lost a leg. He also told the newspaper that he does not tell people outside his military circle that he lost his leg in the war, saying instead that he lost it in a motorcycle accident.
“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” he said.
The planned network comes as Russian officials report growing demand for prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation among soldiers returning from Ukraine.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova previously said the government planned to establish 10 prosthetic and orthopedic rehabilitation centers under the Federal Medical and Biological Agency by 2028, with funding already allocated in the budget.
In March 2025, Denis Kovlen, the Defense Ministry’s chief medical rehabilitation specialist, said Russia needed another 25 to 30 centers to provide prostheses and rehabilitation for people who had lost limbs in combat.
The number of Ukraine war veterans needing prosthetic limbs had tripled since 2022, he said, without providing an absolute figure.
Russia’s Social Fund reported that the number of people registered as having disabilities exceeded 11.1 million by early 2025, reversing a decline before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that at least 376,000 Russian troops had suffered severe wounds resulting in disability by early January 2025. It put the total number wounded at 611,000.
This article was translated with the help of artificial intelligence and was reviewed by a Moscow Times editor before publication. Learn more about our newsroom's AI policy here.
Read this article in Russian at The Moscow Times' Russian service.
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