I’m an Aussie fighting in Ukraine. I blew my leg off stepping on a landmine and need the government to medievac me out

An Australian who lost his lower left leg and tore his left hand apart during fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war has made a desperate plea for help from the Australian government.

Casey Gadaleta, 38, was a volunteer soldier fighting for Ukraine in Kursk, Russia, when his unit came close to an area manned by Russians and North Koreans. The Queenslander was serving with the 80th Brigade and using the Call sign ‘Dundee’, after the classic 1986 Australian film Crocodile Dundee.

On December 8, four months after he deployed, his six-man unit was in Kursk, deep in Russian territory, when he stood on a landmine and the blast tore through his left foot and left hand.

Gadaleta, for which he was convicted in 2021 attack a man at a party, told Seven news On Thursday, delays and poor medical treatment in Ukraine led to his lower left leg being amputated due to necrosis.

He fears he will lose the use of his left hand and wants the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to organize a medical flight back to Australia for him.

But the former steelworker, who has a degree in science, said his plea to DFAT has not been answered.

‘I need bone grafts, tendon transplants and multiple surgeries. Then there is the rehab,” he said from his hospital bed in Kiev.

“I haven’t heard from DFAT, they haven’t offered any help. The Australian embassy in Poland said they would call back in a few days, but they never did.”

The longer he has to wait, the more critical Gadaleta’s need for emergency medical care becomes.

He remembered the horror of stepping on the landmine less than four weeks ago.

“Literally like one step and there’s a bright light and I thought our guys accidentally dropped a grenade on me. “I thought these guys accidentally hit me,” he said.

Due to the shock his body was in, he felt nothing at first, but he soon realized what had happened.

‘Someone shouted, ‘Are you okay? and I said, “Bro, my leg is gone.” He said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Bro, it’s gone.’

The Russians began firing their weapons and advanced towards his position. When he reached for his gun, he realized that his left hand was in pieces.

His colleagues were unable to help him and he was told to use his medical training and use tourniquets to stop the bleeding.

‘I’m begging them, I’m breaking down. I screamed, ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to freeze to death. I’m bleeding so much.’

Gadaleta said he went for 20 hours without first aid or pain relief as he sat, drenched in blood in -4 degrees.

‘I really thought: yes, I’m going to die.’

He was eventually returned to Ukraine, to a hospital in the capital Kiev.

But the three-week wait for the surgery led to him losing his lower leg, he said.

‘My leg died, it actually turned black. They had to amputate,” he said.

He also has shrapnel wounds in his arm and face and is desperate to return to Australia to receive treatment for his injuries.

Gadaleta said he volunteered for the Ukrainian armed forces because of Russia’s war crimes since the country invaded its neighbor in February 2022.

‘I was disgusted and thought: how could one human being do that to another human being? And I just thought, ‘I want to give my life for this cause,'” he said.

‘I wasn’t naive about it. I knew that with all those victims it was not a matter of if, but when I was injured.’

He also saw the fighting in Ukraine as a way to atone for his past. In addition to the assault conviction, he was also previously charged, but acquitted of attempted murder.

“I sacrificed my body and I was willing to sacrifice my life,” he said. “I paid my own way here. I paid my rent and food. I sold my investment property to cover everything.”

The Sunshine Coast man said the Australian government should evacuate him home because it would cost a fraction of the $1.3 billion it has spent on supplying tanks, Bushmasters and aid to Ukraine.

Amazingly, he said he wants to return to fighting after his injuries are treated and healed.

“It hasn’t changed my attitude,” he said.

“I’ll be back as soon as my prosthesis is on.”

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment.