Enlisted, deployed, still fighting: the Ukrainians at the front 1,200 days on

Times

3 days ago

In the days following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of men left their families and jobs to defend their country, swelling the ranks of Kyiv's armed forces. Many had never fired a weapon in anger.
About 1,200 days later, many of the same men are still fighting. With each passing day, however, there are fewer of them left alive. Ukraine's skilled infantry is thinning out.
Russian troops were advancing across Ukraine in the spring of 2022 when Mykhailo, a music teacher from a small town near Kyiv, enlisted. The life-changing decision took him almost no time at all. 'I took a shower and then went straight to the military recruitment office,' he said.
Bohdan, a cook from Kryvyi Rih, President Zelensky's home city, was another who volunteered to fight at the start. 'I didn't even know that the army would feed me, let alone pay me,' he said. 'I just wanted to protect our country's future.'
Both are now battle-hardened fighters with the 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade in Ukraine's Sumy region and their combat experience, and that of other long-serving soldiers, has become invaluable to Kyiv's hopes of holding back Russia. Their previous lives seem like a dream and many are unsure of how they will adapt to civilian life when the war eventually ends.
'I'm not afraid of death. I've been injured six times — three shrapnel wounds and three bullet wounds,' Bohdan, 29, said. In 2023, he was badly injured while fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region and evacuated from the battlefield. He spent a year recovering before returning to the army.
As the war approaches its three-and-a-half-year point, with no end in sight, many of those who joined up at the start are either dead or injured, while others have refused to fight on. There is little hope of a fresh wave of motivated recruits to plug growing manpower gaps along the more than 600-mile front.
'Everyone in Ukraine who wanted to fight is already fighting,' Robert Brovdi, the commander of the military's drone forces, said. He spoke after Russian troops were able to enter Pokrovsk, a besieged town in the east of the country, when a Ukrainian brigade 'simply ran out of infantry', according to DeepState, a Ukrainian website that monitors the front lines.
On Friday, Mariia Berlinska, a well-known war veteran who also heads Kyiv's Centre for Aerial Reconnaissance Support, estimated that Ukraine's military was suffering daily casualties of 300 dead and 750 injured. About 500 troops also desert every day, she said. She warned that Russian forces could be in Kyiv by the winter 'if we don't change something'.
Under martial law that was introduced at the start of the invasion, anyone who was mobilised for the war effort, voluntarily or otherwise, must stay in the army until the end of the conflict. There are exceptions for people suffering from serious health conditions, single fathers and men caring for close relatives with serious illnesses or disabilities. Soldiers aged 18-24 who signed up under a new programme that was launched in February are also allowed to discharge themselves after a year of service.
For many other men, the prospect of fighting indefinitely, unless killed or injured, is something that they want to avoid at any cost. Draft-dodging has become routine and hundreds of thousands of men of fighting age have fled to Europe, according to EU statistics.
Ukraine is hoping to solve at least some of its manpower problems with a fresh influx of foreign fighters. Bohdan, who is now a platoon commander, is instructing a new reconnaissance and strike unit that is dominated by soldiers from Colombia.
In a surreal turn of events, the Colombians are fighting against North Korean troops, who are supporting President Putin's forces in western Russia's Kursk region, where Kyiv maintains a tiny foothold after last year's surprise incursion. The Times saw dozens of the Spanish-speaking soldiers at a military training ground, but was denied permission to interview them.
'The Colombians are much better than the current crop of new Ukrainian soldiers because they haven't been dragged here against their will. Our guys are obsessed with thoughts about how they will all die, how they will get sent on suicide missions and so on. They don't want to learn and they have no motivation,' Bohdan said.
When asked what motivated the Colombians, he replied: 'Money, basically. For them, it's work.' The average monthly frontline salary for a member of the Ukrainian armed forces is 120,000 hryvnias (£2,165), a sum eight times higher than the average earnings of a Colombian soldier.
Mykhailo, who is now a company commander, was equally scathing about the new Ukrainian recruits. 'These guys who were snatched and thrown into a [military draft patrol] vehicle while they were going to the shop aren't ready for war at all. Out of ten of them there is maybe one who will prove himself. These are completely different people from the guys that joined up at the start of the war.'
More than three years at the front, with only 30 days of annual leave, has taken its toll on soldiers. There is growing frustration that no serious efforts are being undertaken to ensure they do not have to shoulder the burden alone. Zelensky recently said there would be no demobilisation of troops 'until the enemy is defeated'.
Laying out anti-drone nets on a road near Sumy
OLEKSIY MOROZOV FOR THE TIMES
The nets are deployed like a cage over the road
OLEKSIY MOROZOV FOR THE TIMES
Ihor Raykov, a soldier with the 13th Khartiia Brigade, which was formed by volunteers, wrote this week in a Facebook post: 'When I went to war, my eldest son was 140cm tall, now he is 167cm. These 27cm of his life passed without me. Many children will never be able to see their fathers again. No one forced me [to join up]. But I did not choose to become a serf.'
He appealed to Zelensky to adopt a 'fair law' on military service terms and to allow soldiers to be rotated on a regular basis. He admitted, however, that such a scheme would require three times more soldiers than at present.
Dmytro, another soldier who has been at the front since 2022, raged against what he said was the corruption and callousness of government officials.
'They don't give a f*** about ordinary soldiers,' he said, as he repaired a window at his family's home in Kyiv after a Russian attack that killed at least 31 people.
'We are losing so many people. I've lost count of how many of my friends have been killed. I go to the graveyard and I scream inside because these men should be alive,' he said.
Some soldiers who have been fighting for more than three years say they have become almost like killing machines, eliminating Russian soldiers without emotion.
Bohdan said he had killed more than 580 Russian troops while serving as a sniper for almost 18 months, an average of more than one a day. 'I haven't even counted how many I killed on assault missions,' he said.
Mykhailo, 31, said he had killed in close combat and as a sniper. 'I didn't feel any emotions, neither sadness nor joy. I didn't dream about the people I killed. I slept peacefully,' he said.
Like many of his fellow soldiers, he tries not to think too much about how and when the war will end, or his plans for peacetime. 'I don't know if I will be able to go back to being a teacher again,' he said. 'A lot has changed inside me.'