Three kilometres an hour was all it took to tip Yan from one Ukrainian life into another. So it’s been disappointment after disappointment; lots of lies, just so people don’t run away from each stage of the process. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/Getty ImagesLike many Ukrainians, Yan held an officer’s rank from doing basic military training at university, but he had no army experience and worked in event management and video editing before the war. “I was trying to get onto a drone course or straight into the brigade to which we’d been supplying drones. Yan took the last option after failing to secure deployment to his requested brigade after completing training last month.

Source: The Irish Times December 06, 2025 03:58 UTC