Taras Panasiuk ran the Flying Pig Marathon with a Russian bullet in his chest. Vadym Kovalenko ran beside him all the way, thinking of his 14-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son back home in Ukraine. They’ve already lived through a lifetime of suffering, pain, and death in the three years since Russia invaded their country.
The two runners, wearing Ukraine’s colors as they traversed Cincinnati’s rainy streets on Sunday, soaked in cheers and basked in the outpouring of love from their city’s American sister. Kovalenko and Panasiuk are from Kharkiv, which has been Cincinnati’s sister city since 1989 and has been under almost continuous bombardment since February 24, 2022.
They ran for a cause. Kovalenko, 39, is one of many who volunteer at the Rubinko Rehabilitation Center in Kharkiv, a specialized medical recovery facility that treats a variety of physical and psychological wounds. When Panasiuk was shot by Russian troops and then injured as his vehicle hit a mine, he was treated at Rubinko. He says the treatments repaired both body and soul and kept him in the fight.
Speaking through translator Sasha Etlin, an Anderson Township resident, Kovalenko recalls the pre-dawn hours in 2022 when explosions awakened his family. There had been rumors of war, he says, but in the fog of just having been awakened from a deep sleep, he was irritated that someone was apparently launching fireworks in the middle of the night. Minutes later, he says, his sister-in-law called and said it was war. “Pack and get out,” she implored.
It was his daughter’s 11th birthday, and there would be no party. Instead, they spent most of the day trying to get out of Kharkiv but were caught in a massive traffic jam. They heard explosions. There were rumors that Russian soldiers were nearby. Unable to go forward, they returned to their home and huddled there until Kovalenko could get his family out of town a week and a half later.
“In a quiet way, we were getting ready for war,” recalls Panasiuk, 49, who serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Ukrainian National Police and in the military’s special forces. Inside Ukrainian lines, his unit serves both as a SWAT team and a counterintelligence force, rooting out Russian spies, informers, and traitors. Outside the lines, his team conducts reconnaissance missions, disrupts Russian supply lines, and degrades enemy fortifications.
He was in his barracks when the war started. “Of course it was scary,” he says in a matter-of-fact sort of way. “It is wrong to say that no one is scared or frightened in a war. Everyone is frightened. But you have to adapt, and people do.”
Three days before Russia invaded, Panasiuk’s wife and daughter went on a vacation to Egypt. “They couldn’t come home,” he says quietly, “so they are now in Germany, where they are safe and secure.”
Kharkiv sits only 25 miles south of the Russian border, so Ukraine’s second largest city was in immediate danger when the war started. But Ukraine’s army stood tall, repelled the invaders, and managed over time to push the enemy back from the city’s suburbs. Today, the front line is about a 45-minute drive away, says Kovalenko.
“But when a missile is launched from Russia, it takes only 20 seconds to reach Kharkiv,” he says. “So you are never safe.” He shakes his head when he notes that his young son has now endured so many attacks that he can tell the difference—just by the sound—between an incoming S-300 missile or an Iranian-built Shahed-136 drone.
“It’s become a war of drones,” Kovalenko says. The attacks are randomly aimed at mostly civilian targets like apartment buildings, shopping centers, schools, and hospitals. “We have a lot of wounded all the time, and the hospitals are overflowing.”
Attacks have become more numerous in the last few weeks as the Russians appear to be trying to consolidate their territorial games and further cripple Ukraine’s infrastructure in the wake of armistice talk.
It was difficult to train for the marathon, admits Kovalenko. It’s dangerous to be outside in Kharkiv, but you can’t prepare to run 26.2 miles in a bomb shelter. You instead find yourself running around burned-out vehicles, shattered glass, and collapsed masonry, always aware that your next stride can be your last.
Both men are in top physical condition, trim and muscular. They’re both runners (when they can). and this was their second Flying Pig. They completed it together in 4:15:54, both in the top half of their age groups. The run was fun, but promoting the work of the Rubinko Center was more important.
“There are so many wounded, so many amputees, so many people suffering from the affects of the war,” Kovalenko says. Rubinko, he says, is a healing space away from the front that provides rest and recovery. Physicians, physical therapists, psychologists and—most importantly—family members help care for the physical injuries and the traumatized spirit.
It’s not just bullet wounds. Soldiers who spend long nights in cold, wet trenches often suffer from exposure as well as debilitating muscle pain. Rubinko has hot water pools and red-light therapy rooms as well as rooms lined with thick layers of salt to promote lung health. Psychologists help treat PTSD and sleep disorders. More than 2,500 patients have gone through the facility’s doors, and sadly more will follow.
Before the race, the two runners held a press availability at the new Cincinnati Public Radio facility, held a meet-and-greet at Streetside Brewery, and visited leaders at Cincinnati City Hall in order to build awareness and support for Rubinko and the Ukrainian cause.
Cincinnati’s Sister City Program has been on the frontline of support for Kharkiv ever since the first explosions rocked the city. Its chairman, Bob Herring, reports that in the last few months they’ve raised more than $52,000 for Kharkiv’s Red Cross and related organizations dealing with the trauma of war.
Herring says the focus right now is the Rubinko Rehabilitation Center. Contributions can be made through the PayPal link on the Cincinnati Sister Cities website or via checks to Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister Cities Partnership at 544 Glen Edge Lane, Cincinnati, OH 45213.
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