Nearly 18 months after Yana Stepanenko, then 11, lost both of her legs in a Russian missile attack in Ukraine, she ran 70 meters in the Lviv Half Marathon, according to The Straits Times.
Stepanenko and her mother, Natalia, were attempting to flee Ukraine in April of last year shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. According to the Times, a Russian missile hit the Kramatorsk train station April 8, which killed almost 60 people and injured more than 100.
Stepanenko lost both of her legs in the attack, and her mother lost one, according to the report.
“I couldn’t get up. It was very painful; I looked at my legs and cried,” Stepanenko previously told United for Ukraine, according to the Times.
The mother-daughter pair were taken to California for prosthetics with help from the Right to Walk Foundation. They started walking again in July of 2022.
Stepanenko, 12, navigated cobblestones with her new running prostheses for 70 meters of the city’s half marathon.
“I’ve only recently got running prostheses,” she told Lviv city council, according to media reports. “So I’m just learning to run, a little scared because I’m not used to it yet. I want to support children who have also lost their legs and cannot run. I want them to see what I’m doing and say to themselves, ‘Yes! I can do it, too! I can run too.’”
The Lviv Half Marathon started in 2016. According to its website, it was interrupted only by the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Heather is the former food and nutrition editor for Runner’s World, the author of The Runner’s World Vegetarian Cookbook, and a nine-time marathoner with a best of 3:23. She’s also proud of her 19:40 5K and 5:33 mile. Heather is an RRCA certified run coach.
