When Shota Bitadze returned to the trenches in Ukraine, months after being severely wounded, he attempted to keep the extent of his injuries secret from his comrades.

“At first no one knew I was missing my limb because I put a glove over my prosthetic hand,” he told RFE/RL. “But when I moved my [bionic] limb it made a small noise and the guys started to wonder where the sound was coming from.”

The Georgian fighter then demonstrated an advanced prosthesis costing tens of thousands of dollars, which can function with the dexterity of a slow-moving human hand. “When I took off the glove and they saw it everyone was shocked,” he admits.

Bitadze, 26, is from Khashuri, a town in Central Georgia. He worked in construction and as a children’s entertainment prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “When the war started I felt strongly that I needed to contribute something,” according to him. Within three weeks of the invasion, he went inside Ukraine and quickly became one of the hundreds of Georgian nationals reported to be fighting for Kyiv in the battle.

Bitadze’s right hand was destroyed in an explosion in eastern Ukraine in March 2023, which he claims has yet to be explained. “I don’t know the details of what happened that day so I’m not talking about it yet.” He provides an explanation. After having his arm amputated below the elbow, Bitadze was fitted with the advanced bionic hand and rehabilitated through the Superhumans Center, a charity that provides amputees with prosthetic limbs in Ukraine.

“Losing your hand is extremely stressful,” he explains. “But I just set one goal for myself: to get back to the front lines and continue what I’d started in 2022.” He returned to war in February 2024, quickly earning the predicted nickname “Terminator.”

Bitadze’s social media pages feature videos of him firing weapons with his bionic hand and navigating front-line trenches. The Georgian fighter claims that his bionic arm allows him to fire perfectly from a stationary posture. However, in a chaotic battlefield dynamic, “for example, when you have to run and pay attention to a lot of things,” the prosthesis becomes less reliable.

Bitadze’s German-made robotic limb is directly attached to his nerves, allowing the same muscles that move a hand to transfer electrical signals to the robotic limb. The battery-powered prosthesis may convert those signals into mechanical movements, including the manipulation of individual fingers. Bitadze is hardly the only Georgian soldier fighting in Ukraine after sustaining life-changing injuries. Zurab Jibuti of the Georgian Legion in Ukraine lost both of his legs during a Ukrainian-led offensive into Russia’s Belgorod area in 2023. He has since rejoined the combat, serving as a machine gunner aboard an armored vehicle.

“I returned to service because the war isn’t over and the Georgian Legion needs experienced soldiers,” he told RFE/RL, adding that the hardest thing about fighting as a double amputee is “knowing that you have limits and you can’t do as much as you could before — physical limits, not mental limits.”

Pryncyp, a human rights organization that represents Ukrainian military, claims that up to 50,000 warriors have had limbs amputated as a result of war-related injuries. A recent investigation on amputee troops in Ukraine revealed that many of them intended to continue fighting or had already returned to the front.

On the Russian side, solid numbers are impossible to get, although Kremlin officials have stated that almost half of all severely injured Russian soldiers have required amputation. Several frightening images have lately surfaced depicting Russian soldiers on crutches purportedly being ordered into fight in Ukraine.

Bitadze’s return to the fro

nt is voluntary, and he says dealing with uncertainty from able-bodied soldiers about why he returned the fight has been easy. “I just tell them I’m here for the same reasons you are,” the man replied. “It’s simple.”