Ukrainian pensioner who lost legs defies Russian occupation

Hryhorii Yanchenko, a Soviet army veteran who fled to Zaporizhzhia from Russian controlled Kherson city, collects donations for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine September 29, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (Reuters) - More than half a century after gangrene claimed his legs up to his hips and all of his fingers, Hryhoriy Yanchenko joined the Ukrainian resistance to Russia's invasion.

Now 75, he put on the blue-striped jersey and sky-blue beret of the Soviet paratroop unit in which he served and drove his electric mobility cart through the occupied southern city of Kherson collecting donations.