In her latest novel, “Audition,”

The explosion was instantaneous. When he looked down at his left leg, all he saw was bone.Maksym Vysotskyi, 42, a Ukrainian Drone Unit Commander of the 82nd assault brigade smokes a cigar during a drone test flight in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Feb. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Maksym Vysotskyi, 42, a Ukrainian Drone Unit Commander of the 82nd assault brigade smokes a cigar during a drone test flight in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Feb. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)“I quickly accepted the fact that my leg was gone. What’s the point of mourning? Crying and worrying won’t bring it back,” he says. By May 2024, he was back in uniform, describing the feeling as “returning home.” Vysotskyi now commands a team operating heavy drones for nighttime missions.“For personal confidence in life, you need to come out of this not as someone broken by the war and written off, but as someone they tried to break — but couldn’t. You came back, proved you could still do something, and you’ll step away only when you decide to,” he says.

In the fall of 2023, Zhalinskyi, 34, was still in the infantry when an artillery strike hit his position, severing his arm. He was the only one who survived from his group.When he returned to the army, he embarked on the new role of navigator on evacuation missions, and he now maps routes, evaluates missions, and finds the safest paths to evacuate the infantry, allowing the driver to focus solely on the road.

Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Zhalinskyi of the Azov brigade, who lost his right arm in battle, poses for photo in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Zhalinskyi of the Azov brigade, who lost his right arm in battle, poses for photo in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)Displaced Palestinians walk by tents at the Islamic University of Gaza compound amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Displaced Palestinians walk by tents at the Islamic University of Gaza compound amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)Palestinians walk at the Islamic University in Gaza City, which is now a shelter for displaced Palestinians amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk at the Islamic University in Gaza City, which is now a shelter for displaced Palestinians amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)AP writer Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this report.