Ukrainian war vets’ liberating swim

During a pool training session months ago, Ukrainian war veteran Oleh Tserkovnyi was struck by an idea: What if a group of veterans swam across the strait of Bosporus, between Turkey's European and Asian shores? And if they did it on Aug. 24, Ukraine’s independence day?

- EvGENIY MALOLETKA AND HANNA ARHIROVA

KHALIL HAMRA Associated Press PAVLO TOVSTYK and Oleksandr Dashko, left, joined a third Ukrainian in Sunday's Bosporus Strait race.

‘The symbolism of the day would draw attention to the toll and devastation inflicted by Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

When the 34-year-old pitched the idea to fellow veterans in their One for Another support group, none raised injuries, particularly their amputations, as a barrier. Two joined him right away.

They trained for months, with the support of Superhumans Center, a veterans rehabilitation clinic in Ukraine, and coached by CapitalTRI, an amateur triathlon team in Kyiv, the capital. They agreed their race would have another goal — to raise money for prosthetics, which remain costly and urgently needed by many of Ukraine's wounded.

“We're not asking for pity,” Tserkovnyi told the Associated Press shortly before the competition. “We're asking for support.”

After months of rigorous training, discipline and physical challenges, the three Ukrainian veterans on Sunday joined more than 2,800 swimmers from 81 countries in the four-mile crossing from Asia to Europe.

The Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Race is an open-water event held each year in Istanbul, organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee since 1989.

On Monday, coast guard and maritime police vessels in Istanbul were searching for a Russian swimmer who went missing during the race, Turkish state-run media reported.

The swimmer, named by the Anadolu news agency as Nikolai Svechnikoy, failed to complete the race from Istanbul’s Asian shore to the European side.