A Ukrainian soldier who took up arms on the first day of the full-scale invasion has said his unit is ‘tired’ after a year of war but will ‘see it through to the end’.
Valentyn Ilchuk swapped civilian life with his family in Kyiv for a small task force which is currently undertaking missions in the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region.
Since Russia launched the all-out attack, he has found himself in the midst of a tank battle and taken part in the morale-boosting liberation of the Kherson port city.
The former University of Warwick exchange student, who has been sharing his story with Metro.co.uk, said he and his comrades are ‘here for the win’ as the war reaches the one-year point today.
Speaking from the frontline, he told Metro.co.uk that while his wife and seven-year-old daughter are out of harm’s way in Estonia, the only true way to secure their future safety is to restore Ukraine’s 1991 borders.
‘On a personal level I’m tired, I’m missing my family and civilian life a lot, and I’m definitely realising there is a long way ahead of us, especially after Kharkiv and Kherson,’ Valentyn said.
‘We were winning and winning and winning and I would describe the Zaporizhzhian front as definitely less intense than what we had in Kherson, not because of the lack of trying but mostly because the Russians have concentrated most of their efforts in Donbas.
‘You can feel the fatigue in the air but the morale is there, I don’t think anything has changed in this regard, we are here for the win.
‘If there is no win for us, there is no life for us afterwards, we’ll lose at least a portion of our country.
‘That’s not acceptable after all the victims, losses and destruction.
‘Most of the guys around me are like myself, we want to see it through to the end.’
