Ukrainian war veterans swim across Bosphorus to raise funds for prosthetics

(From left) Ukrainian veterans Oleksandr Dashko, Oleh Tserkovnyi and Pavlo Tovstyk train in Kyiv. PIC/insta/evgenymaloletka

Ukrainian war veteran Oleh Tserkovnyi, 34, was struck by an idea: What if a group of veterans swam across the strait of Bosphorus, between Turkey's European and Asian shores on August 24, Ukraine's Independence Day? When he pitched the idea to fellow veterans with amputations, two joined him right away.

They trained for months and agreed their race would have another goal - to raise money for prosthetics, which remain costly and urgently needed by many of Ukraine's wounded. On Sunday, the three Ukrainian veterans joined more than 2800 swimmers from 81 countries in the 6.5-km crossing and completed the event.

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

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever