THE SOLDIERS chanted the Lord’s Prayer and clicked rosary beads as they advanced. For Ivan, 43, an old-timer from Ukraine’s 103rd brigade, the fighting inside Russia was just another day’s work. “Grenades and mortars look the same wherever you are.” The newest recruits were almost paralysed with fear. But the men tramped on together, 10km a day, crossing fields and railway lines, every night replacing forward units in hastily dug positions ahead of them. Three days, three hikes, three rotations. On the third night, the Russian glide bombs hit. “Everything was burning. Arms here, legs there”. Twelve men in the company died immediately. Ivan suffered shrapnel injuries to his groin and chest, and was evacuated to a hospital in the Sumy region of Ukraine.