Ivan has been give the name Decent Man by his fellow soldiers, for being a decent man. As a 40-year-old teacher from central Ukraine and the father of three children, he would have been exempt from fighting at the beginning of the war. But he wanted to fight for his country. He has now spent 18 months on the battlefield and desperately misses his family. He might dream of returning home, but so far doesn’t consider being discharged an option. “The country has already spent money and resources on me. How can I leave?” he asks. Another soldier, who used to be a construction worker in a village in eastern Ukraine, speaks about his motivation to continue serving: “I’ve learned how to become a better and more helpful soldier for my colleagues.”

I spoke to troops from this squadron, which belongs to one of the most famous Ukrainian combat brigades, earlier this month. I wanted to understand the mood among soldiers on the eastern front, to find out what the troops care most about and also to discover whether political disputes reach the frontline.

My encounters came before President Zelenskiy went to the EU to plead for more support this week. Although the EU agreed to start Ukraine’s negotiation for EU membership, €50bn of financial aid was cruelly blocked by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán – Russia’s closest ally in the EU. This comes at a time when President Biden in the US is struggling to get an aid package for the country through Congress.

Most of the servicemen I spoke to had been serving for between 15 and 20 months. They had survived major battles; many were wounded and had witnessed the deaths of their closest friends. In that time, most had not had more than a week or two off duty. The squadron’s 26-year-old commander got married six months before the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Since then,........

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