This is their first joint war. For the first time as soldiers. When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded their country, they joined the army as a family to enlist to fight.
Yaroslav is a 59-year-old grandfather. One of his sons, Nazar, 34, has two sons. Another son, Paul, 26, has a daughter.
They let their wives and children go to the front line, but wanted to stay together in their battalion.
Fighting as a family and for their family keeps their mission “very easy and simple,” Yaroslav told CNN.
“What can I say – we love our country and we will defend it to the end,” he said.
The men admit with nervous laughter that it may not be so easy for those who are still at home, especially for Yaroslav’s wife, who has her husband and sons in danger.
“Mom is certainly worried about us,” Nazar said. “She is nervous. Our wives and children are also worried. But we are still here, we are defending our land.”
Russian forces are just over a mile away, officers say – not only within artillery range, but also at risk of a sniper bullet. The trenches are in the agricultural lands of the Nikolaev district, near the Black Sea coast and in the territory that the Russians are attacking.
The deputy commander of the forces, also known as Nazar, is only 37 years old. He said he lost four soldiers in one attack – his worst day of the war.
He served in the regular army and fought Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. When the invasion began, he also enlisted.
“An enemy came to our country, to our home, cowardly under cover of night, without declaring war, began shelling our towns and villages,” he said.
“They went all the way to Kyiv, entering the suburbs of Bucha and Irpen. We do not have another choice. We are defending our land. We have not come to another’s home. We are not Russians who penetrate foreigners. We protect our families, our children, our parents. ”
He said he was fighting to secure all of Ukraine, including the eastern regions, which are now under Russian control, and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
For now, he must limit his troops to hiding in the narrow strips of trees bordering flat open areas of farmland and bushes, driving on dirt roads that embrace hedges as cover.
If he spends a lot of time in a village, he said he feared it could cause the Russians to attack him.
Artillery strikes are now commonplace around these villages near the front line, according to a local named Anatoly.
He said his neighbor was killed just the day before in an attack that destroyed his home.
But as he toured the village he had lived all his life, he said he saw no reason to leave now.
Asked about Russian forces a short distance away, Anatoly was optimistic. “What can I say? They do bad things.”
In another village, far from the front line, a woman named Tatiana Bozko told CNN what happened when Russian soldiers came to her village before being beaten by Ukrainian forces.
They took her husband, a pro-Ukrainian former teacher who worked at the village school, she said. Bozko told CNN she believed some of her Russian-backed neighbors had pointed out her husband to the invaders.
“Sirgei was a very kind and bright man,” she said, the soul of every gathering. “He was hated only by those who were for Russia.
He was taken from their home and she never saw him again.
His body was found days later, dumped in a ditch under a mattress. Someone in the village noticed a protruding torn arm and other signs of torture – bruises and what looked like cuts.
“He was beaten. It was scary,” Bozko said quietly. “He was obviously shot when he was still alive. There were holes.”
Bozko, also a retired teacher in her 60s, now lives with terrible thoughts about her husband’s last moments. Three things comfort her: her son, her mother, whom she helps to live, and the Ukrainian army.
As she tells CNN about her family, she stops to notice the deep, roaring sound of shelling in the distance. Mortars are fired.
Now she knows the difference between incoming and outgoing. This is coming from the Ukrainian side against the Russians, she says and smiles. “I’m glad to hear that.”
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