Members of Ukraine’s 1st Separate Assault Battalion describe themselves as firemen. Their job is to rapidly deploy to areas of the front that are in danger of collapse. Lately, the service has been in high demand: The front is burning. A large-scale counter-offensive last year failed to achieve meaningful victories, and since then Russia has been on the attack.
Kupyansk, a city in northeastern Ukraine, some twenty miles from the Russian border, appears to be a priority. According to the Ukrainian military, Russia has amassed forty thousand troops near the city, which it has bombarded for months. In January, after Russian forces routed Ukrainian soldiers from an uninhabited settlement outside Kupyansk called Tabaivka, the 1st Separate Assault Battalion was tapped to halt and, if possible, reverse the enemy’s advance.
Luke Mogelson embedded with the battalion two days later, and remained with them for the next three weeks as they carried out their difficult mission.
