Volodymyr Korsia, who haled his career as a WRC2 and European Rally Championship co-driver to defend his country from invasion, was wounded in action while fighting in southern Ukraine in mid-November.

Korsia was on a combat mission with the 126th Territorial Defense Brigade when he got hurt, losing his shoulder blade and sustaining heavy injuries to his torso and legs. He was medevacked to a hospital and underwent multiple surgeries.

His condition stabilized after about a week as his legs, abdomen, and lungs had mostly recovered; this meant he could walk around and go outside for fresh air before returning for further treatment. On the other hand, he continued to deal with back pain and his shoulder blade could not be replaced.

He already planned to enlist in the Armed Forces of Ukraine well before Russia’s full-scale invasion. He had been in Brovary when the first Russian strikes occurred, so he evacuated his family from Odesa before looking for opportunities to take up arms. A lengthy backlog to join the AFU kept him on the sideline until a friend managed to get him into the Territorial Defense Forces. Callsign “Rocket”, he was initially stationed on Ukraine’s border with Transnistria—a Russian-backed breakaway state from Moldova that proclaimed neutrality in the Russo-Ukrainian War but whose proximity made that part of the border a risk—to oversee logistics and material procurement. Korsia then served a year in reconnaissance before being assigned to communications.

While he was not keen on his new job since he “imagined being more like an action hero,” his responsibilities entailed establishing command posts and communications relays back to base, as well as creating a demining system to counter Russia’s PFM-1 mines. These roles became more vital when he was re-stationed along the frontline in Kherson. Given his racing background, he was naturally also tasked with being a driver if necessary.

“It turned out that communications personnel would come in first and leave last,” he remarked in a video published by the 126th in October. “Especially now, when there are assault operations on the east bank (of the Dnipro), we are dealing with forward command posts. We are charge of communications for them, everything goes through us there. We climb all sorts of structures, and do very interesting things from there.”

In more peaceful times, Korsia was a rally co-driver who won the 2013 Ukraine Cup outright and its 2012 Class 5 title. He also competed in the European and World Rally Championships, with his last action at those levels being an eighth at the 2021 Arctic Rally Finland in the Volkswagen Polo of Georg Linnamäe. Korsia had plans of racing the 2022 ERC in a new car before the invasion.

With Korsia now undergoing a “long-term rehabilitation”, donations to support his recovery can be made at the following addresses:

• Mono: 4441111133282453
• Приват 5168752083534084
• PayPal korsya@gmail.com

Featured image credit: 126th Territorial Defense Brigade