Judging by the welcome uplift in commentary around the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the popular western view appears to be that the war began on 24 February 2022. However, that aggression – the largest incursion by one European country on another since the Second World War – was just an explosive escalation of a war that had started ten years ago. Throughout those years, Kyiv’s Mykhailivska Square has featured rows of Russian military vehicles captured during the war in Donbas.

The population of Ukraine is less than a quarter of Russia’s but despite this disparity in size the country has kept the Russian bear at bay for a decade. I returned for a second interview with Major Bohdan Krotevych, Chief of Staff in the Azov Brigade, and the intelligence officer Illya Samoilenko to ask them what phenomena keeps the Ukrainian forces fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds: ‘The spirit of freedom is in our blood…Ukrainians will either win or we will all die,’ Krotevych told me. ‘This war will end with victory for Ukraine, or it will continue forever.’

Krotevych believes that the issue of aid to Ukraine is being looked upon as a business project in the West

Russian forces have recently captured the city of Avdiivka in the centre of the Donetsk Oblast – their biggest prize since taking Bakhmut in May 2023. It’s a sign that the tide may be turning in Russia’s favour. For a short while it looked as if the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade might become besieged in the city’s coke plant, beginning an eerie repeat of the 85-day siege of the Azovstal iron and steel works in Mariupol following which Krotevych surrendered into Russian captivity (he was subsequently released in a prisoner exchange). However, this time the Ukrainian forces avoided the same fate by successfully withdrawing.

The rush to provide arms to Ukraine, following the invasion, has dissipated over time largely because of the growing reluctance of US lawmakers to approve further aid. There are, however, indications that the likely murder of Alexei Navalny might provoke Congress to unblock approval for the stalled $60 billion (£47 billion) aid package. It can’t come soon enough. Krotevych has even auctioned his car to provide money for munitions and Samoilenko confirmed that there are many fundraisers being organised by Ukrainian soldiers to self-fund the defence of their homeland. Another recent development is that people in their 50s and 60s are taking up arms to fill the gaps in the Ukrainian forces.

Krotevych believes that the issue of aid to Ukraine is being looked upon as a business project in the West. ‘Countries weigh up the pros and cons, including the probability of defeat, which means their resources are wasted. It’s nothing personal, just business,’ he explained, adding:

I don’t criticise this approach but those investing in Ukraine have to consider our history. Ukraine has survived countless invasions and occupations through the centuries, not least during the so-called Soviet Union when the Holodomor (the politically induced famine of 1932/33) killed millions of Ukrainians; when everything Ukrainian was destroyed; and total Russification took place. We still survived and reasserted our self-identification. It is said that ‘what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’, but for Ukrainians it is ‘what kills us’ that makes the nation strong. Independence and freedom are more important to us than life. Our soldiers hold dear the motto ‘Better to die on your feet, than live on your knees’.

As President Zelensky announced recently, 31,000 of Krotevych’s colleagues have already died, while estimates of Russian deaths vary from 120 to 180 thousand.

Samoilenko told me that ‘Western aid is crucial. If we don’t get it, the consequences will be fatal because if we fail then Europe will be next’. Krotevych, 30, picked up this same theme. ‘The only thing that stands in the way of Putin ​is Ukraine,’ he said. ‘Our children have already seen war, Ukrainian children are already fighting. At our young age, we are already old men inside, we think about unborn children, even though we were children ourselves not so long ago. We fight because we have no choice. We are at the beginning of a third world war, a war for the future world, which will happen as a consequence of Europe and the USA not opposing Russia fiercely and actively right now. We still haven’t learned from the mistakes of our grandfathers.’

‘It is inherent in humans to repeat mistakes,’ he continued. ‘Everyone was so happy when the Soviet Union collapsed that they failed to notice the birth of a new monster – a hybrid country with imperial ambitions and hate propaganda for the West: the main TV channels of the Russian Federation continually repeat items about the “decaying West”. While I was in captivity, I heard Russians telling us that although we are their brothers, we are “under the influence of the West” and that by killing Ukrainians they release them. In 1948, Winston Churchill wrote that all the plans of Nazi Germany were openly described in Mein Kampf (Hitler’s manifesto that was published in 1925) but the world didn’t pay proper attention to it and paid the price of millions upon millions of innocent lives. Will the world pay attention now before it’s too late?’