Like soldiers who have seen too much, Ilya – whose nom de guerre is “Ike” – fixed his counterpart with a gaze devoid of all emotion. Stationed between Izium, a strategic city in northeastern Ukraine that Russian forces occupied from April to September 2022, and the nearby front line, he commands a former special border guard unit that had been transferred to the regular army. On this freezing evening in early February, seated before a steaming cup of tea, he agreed to talk without realizing that his impassive demeanor spoke volumes about four years of war, and about the physical and psychological toll it has taken. Unflappable, his voice steady, he nevertheless pointed out that few people had imagined Ukraine would be able to defy the odds by holding back a Russian army vastly superior in numbers and equipped with massive military production capacity.

Every morning, Ilya said he still finds the strength to motivate his men by telling them to “make the world a better place by killing as many Russians as possible.” As with other Ukrainian units, drones play a central role, but his men still engage in numerous close-combat fights. “The Russians are advancing,” he admitted, “but very slowly, and at the cost of colossal human losses that will eventually wear down Moscow’s military apparatus. The difference in the value attached to human life between them and us largely explains our resistance.”

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