How AI and bionics are helping Ukrainian soldiers return to action

By Ryan Bergeron, CNN

(CNN) — Valera Kucherenko had already served a term in the Ukrainian army when Russia invaded in 2022. But he joined back up and, on a fateful October night in 2023, lost both hands in a grenade attack.

It’s a story that’s all too common for Ukrainian soldiers. Since the start of the war, an estimated 20,000 Ukrainians have lost limbs. Such injuries typically end military careers, but advancements in bionics are enabling some veterans to resume what they see as their duty.

“For me, prosthetics were made in such a way that I’m returning back to the army,” Kucherenko told CNN.

Kucherenko was fitted with two bionic hands that are new to the market. The Esper Hand is the first product from Esper Bionics, a Ukrainian-US based company focused on next-generation prosthetics.

Artificial Intelligence is disrupting many industries, but it is also offering up unprecedented solutions. In the field of bionic prosthetics, AI or machine learning can help patients who’ve lost limbs regain functions – and perhaps even gain functions they didn’t originally have with human limbs. At least that’s the hope of those at Esper.

“I think AI will be the next step in bionics,” says Dima Gazda, CEO of Esper Bionics.

Gazda, a physician and engineer from Ukraine, worked with his team for several years to perfect the Esper Hand and says their systems have been “built for AI since day one.”

In this bionic hand, AI helps the prosthetic quickly learn its user’s behavior and choose hand grips the user will need.

“If I take cup from a table several times, tomorrow, the system will understand,” says Gazda. The AI-empowered hand can also detect muscle activity.

It’s not just AI that is helping users regain their functions quicker. Bionic prosthetics are also being built more precisely to mimic human limbs. The Esper Hand has 6 different motors – one for each finger and two for the thumb. This allows each finger to move separately.

According to Esper Bionics, 70 Ukrainian soldiers are currently serving with Esper Hands, but the need greatly outnumbers the supply. Esper says there are currently around 170 people on the waitlist. With the fighting in Ukraine continuing every day, the number of those in need will continue to climb.

Helping hand

Inside an office complex about 20 minutes from Minneapolis is a clinic run by the non-profit Protez Foundation. Every morning, a group of Ukrainian veterans gather inside the clinic and go over the schedule for the day. Each one of the veterans is missing at least one limb, in some cases two to three. Their schedules will consist of prosthetic fittings and training. Those with prosthetic legs will practice walking; those with prosthetic hands, like Kucherenko, will practice movements like building with blocks.

The clinic is run by Yakov Gradinar, the Protez Foundation’s chief medical officer. Gradinar is a Ukrainian prosthetist living in Minnesota, who co-founded Protez a couple of months after the war started in 2022. “Protez” means “prosthetic” in Ukrainian.

“You search for meaning in your life,” Gradinar said. “Ukraine needed prosthetics, and I’m a prosthetist. I can help.”

The Protez Foundation and Esper Bionics have partnered together through a special initiative to help Ukrainians. Esper Bionics sells the Esper Hand (which normally sell for around $20,000) to Protez at manufacturing costs, and then Protez fits them to users for free.

Gradinar has noted the speed with which veterans are adapting to the Esper Hands. His patient Valera Kucherenko – who lost both arms in that grenade attack — is now back in Ukraine with plans to re-join the army and train soldiers.

The veterans’ personal grit and motivation play a big role. But so too does the technology.

“We often talk about negativity [around AI], but we don’t talk about the part that technology can be adapting itself,” the prosthetist says. The hope is the technology will help bionic prosthetics get better and smarter.

Esper is currently working on a leg model and an exoskeleton. The long view for Esper is health devices that help all of humanity, but right now, there is a central focus on helping those in Ukraine.

“Our dedication is to help people who have the biggest need,” Gazda said. “I think by working together with the Protez Foundation, we are making Ukraine stronger.”

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