Author: Mirza irtiza baig

For less than a fortnight, Maxym and his friends have been sleeping in earthen dugouts, eating food heated over campfires, and hearing the news of the Russians advancing in the vicinity of just one mile. "Of course they are going to come," he says. "They are far more numerous than we are." They are dug deep into this dense eastern Ukrainian forest, near Slovyansk, and are part of Ukraine's territorial defense -- non-professional soldiers who signed up in the opening days of Russia's February invasion. So far, they have avoided contact with the enemy by hiding beneath camouflage nets next to giant pyramids of bottled water. But every moment of every day they live with the thud of artillery and are showered with cluster munitions. Their wooded encampment is regularly struck by anti-tank w...