Family Reunion for a Lone Soldier

The Fellowship  |  April 17, 2025

It was a Wednesday at the Soldiers Home in north Tel Aviv, where injured and lone soldier Vladimir usually plays ping-pong once a week. He’s a beneficiary of the Fellowship-supported IDF Disabled Veterans Organization and receives financial aid.

But this Wednesday was very different. Instead of his typical routine, he got one of the biggest surprises of his life. The Fellowship had arranged for his mother and aunt to fly from Ukraine to visit him for the first time in six years.

Vladimir always wanted to move to Israel, and he showed incredible courage and faith to relocate overseas to complete high school in Israel and then serve in the IDF.  But after COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and the dark day of October 7 and following war, Vladimir found it impossible to visit home.

Moreover, Vladimir is injured from war and is dealing with rehabilitation, severe pain, and PTSD. “An RPG was fired at our tank and the tank driver, attempting to evade, nearly overturned the tank,” said Vladimir. “A 93-pound tank shell fell on my right leg, pinning me to the iron seat.” Today, Vladimir needs regular injections of pain killers, and even so, he’ll wake up screaming from the pain.

Vladimir is so young and is doing all this alone without any help from family. He tells us he has hidden some of the details of how much he suffers from his family because he doesn’t want to worry his mother, who can do little to help, and who is dealing with the harsh war in Ukraine. Thankfully, his mother is also provided support by The Fellowship through our partners on the ground in Ukraine.

This is why your support of lone soldiers is so important. Just before his family arrived, Vladimir said: “I will go to the sea with my relatives. We will sit on the shore, embracing, looking at the waves, crying with the joy of meeting and believing that all the bad things will definitely pass.” It was a much-needed, emotional, and healing reunion.