St. Petersburg, Russia—After traveling 3,300 kilometers, a Russian Ambassador for Peace has completed his solo Peace Road event.
Yevgeny Kutuzov arrived at the famous Palace Square in his hometown of St. Petersburg on September 21, 2021—which is also the International Day of Peace.
The journey was held under the flag of the Peace Road of the Universal Peace Federation.
Mr. Kutuzov decided to walk from the Lipetsk region town of Gryazi to the village of Knyazi. (There is a Russian saying, “from Gryazi to Knyazi,” which means literally “from dirt to kings.”)
His trek started on April 1, but his plans were interrupted by an accident. When leaving the city of Lipetsk, he was hit by a car, and was brought to a hospital with a broken leg. As a result, he had to learn to walk again, but he did not give up his inspiration to complete his journey. On the contrary, he received another inspiration—to travel the distance on a hand bike.
“The choice was small—either a standard wheelchair or a sports hand bike,” Mr. Kutuzov told a St. Petersburg television channel that interviewed him at the finish line.
“I decided that on the sports one, I have a chance to complete the journey. I approached this seriously, consulted with a surgeon, with a rehabilitation therapist. I was given a list of exercises that need to be done so that the leg heals and the bones heal properly.”
As a result, he finished the remainder of his 3,300-kilometer trip (over 2,000 miles) on crutches and a hand bike. He is now planning to donate his unique sports bike to a charity auction in support of a fund for victims of road traffic accidents.
This is not Mr. Kutuzov's first long-distance walk. Previously he had set off on foot from the Russian city of Tver, heading to India, but the trip could not be completed because of the pandemic. He walked through Russia before being stopped on the border with Azerbaijan.
However, another idea was realized—he walked from St. Petersburg to Mount Elbrus in the south of Russia to raise money for three children with cerebral palsy. Now Mr. Kutuzov is making plans to climb a new mountain—and will reveal the details in October.