When a shell exploded near Alexander Budko, the 26-year-old was found buried alive and in “terrible pain” from injuries that caused both of his legs to be amputated.

The Ukrainian soldier was in Kharkiv when his unit was attacked by Russian invasion forces in August 2022.

Two years later, he is the star of a reality TV show, the Ukrainian version of The Bachelor, in which many women fight for his love.

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The BBC spoke to the veteran turned celebrity, who says he hopes the show will help him find love after breaking up with his girlfriend last January.

His motives are not only romantic. He wants, he says, by being on the show to raise awareness of the challenges faced by Ukrainians with disabilities.

He wants to show that wounded veterans are not “outsiders, but full members of society.”

“In my case, my life now is better than it was before the war, better than before I was injured,” he says.

His life wasn’t always like this. In the years before the Russian invasion, he worked as a barista in a Kiev restaurant while studying graphic design.

He says his dreams were “down to earth”: to travel, discover the world and grow professionally. He wanted to start a family.

But his life was turned upside down two years ago when he became one of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who joined the army.

In August 2022 it was deployed near Izyum, an occupied city on the front line of the Russian advance.

The city was liberated from Kiev only a month after Alexander was seriously wounded.

“I felt the earth shift. I felt a terrible pain in my legs and realized I was going to lose them,” he said.

“I screamed in horrible pain and shouted to be heard.”

His comrades dug him out of the ground and gave him first aid. But it was then that he realized that his legs were badly hurt.

“I realized I had lost my legs at the time of the injury, two or three seconds after I felt the pain.”

Oleksandr survived, but much of Izyum was left in ruins. At the time, authorities said they had found more than 400 bodies in graves near the city.

Despite the difficult recovery, he was able to walk with prosthetic legs within six months.

“When I didn’t have prosthetics, I had to get around in a wheelchair. I discovered how inaccessible and unsuitable Kyiv was for wheelchair users, even though it is the capital,” he says.

Injuries from the war mean Alexander’s experience is becoming increasingly common in Ukraine.

Although there are no official figures to record the number of war casualties, tens of thousands are estimated to have lost limbs.

This resulted in the creation of a separate reality show called Legs Off – presented by Alexander – which captures the difficulties disabled people face as they move around Ukrainian cities.

As well as presenting, the veteran has also written a book, won medals at the Invictus Games and performed with a US ballet troupe – all while recovering from his injuries.

He’s so popular in Ukraine that The Bachelor’s app crashed when it was announced he’d be starring in the next season.

The producers of The Bachelor see the veteran as a symbol of hope. “Despite his amputations, Oleksandr rides a bike, drives a car and climbs mountains. She lives life to the fullest,” says Natalia Franchuk, from STB, the network on which the show will air.