Mac Hughes remembers the smell of diesel and the searing pain racing through his legs as he lay pinned underneath a burning vehicle after a drone strike in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region on Canada Day.

The Calgarian, who signed a contract with the Ukrainian military a year and a half ago, was conscious as he was pulled out from underneath the vehicle with what turned out to be third-degree burns.

Now, after spending nearly two months lying in a hospital bed, the 23-year-old is trying to push through exhaustion as he takes his first steps as part of a rehabilitation program in the capital, Kyiv.

"It is tiring. It's a big, long process," he said. "It's good to be back on my feet after 53 days."

Mac Hughes initially came to Ukraine with his father, Paul, right, to work as a humanitarian vo

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