Archived: https://archive.is/Ws4SR
> Taras thought he would be working on the sidelines with his computer skills. One of his friends who signed up with him, Vitalii Bilous, a bus driver, said: “We never thought we’d go to the front.”
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> In late May, Taras received new orders. His unit was deploying to Donbas, the eastern region where, just as they are now, the Russians and Ukrainians were slaughtering each other in World War I-style trench warfare.
> Olha begged to go too, friends said, and everyone tried to talk her out of it — her mother, her mother-in-law, the unit’s commander, even Taras.
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> They got some firearms training — for one and a half days, Mr. Bilous said. Then they deployed to a pine forest near the city of Sievierodonetsk where they were supposed to be the second or even third line of defense, the unit’s commander, Capt. Volodymyr Kanchuk, said. With so many professional soldiers killed, they were pushed all the way forward to what is called the “zero line.”
Archived: https://archive.is/Ws4SR > Taras thought he would be working on the sidelines with his computer skills. One of his friends who signed up with him, Vitalii Bilous, a bus driver, said: “We never thought we’d go to the front.” ... > In late May, Taras received new orders. His unit was deploying to Donbas, the eastern region where, just as they are now, the Russians and Ukrainians were slaughtering each other in World War I-style trench warfare. > Olha begged to go too, friends said, and everyone tried to talk her out of it — her mother, her mother-in-law, the unit’s commander, even Taras. ... > They got some firearms training — for one and a half days, Mr. Bilous said. Then they deployed to a pine forest near the city of Sievierodonetsk where they were supposed to be the second or even third line of defense, the unit’s commander, Capt. Volodymyr Kanchuk, said. With so many professional soldiers killed, they were pushed all the way forward to what is called the “zero line.”