On the fronts beyond Lyman, the forests are burning. Even when the Moscow army's bombardments cease, fires continue to consume the region, day and night. Lyman has already been battered by tank attacks and artillery duels in the first year of the Russian invasion, when this town in Donetsk oblast changed hands twice. The forest of severed trees has become a black forest in places. Depending on the wind, villages and roads are sometimes overwhelmed by clouds of ash.

Hidden under trees half-charred by their own 152 mm cannon, each shell shot accompanied by a fireball that ignites the surrounding branches, the gunners nicknamed "Bulba" (in homage to the Cossack fighter Taras Boulba, from Nikolai Gogol's novel) and "Rakun" (raccoon) had received orders to target an enemy artillery gun. Once Bulba transmitted the coordinates, the men covered their ears and Rakun fired. The ground trembled, the forest shuddered. One shot was all it took. The battle isn't raging these days, so there's no point wasting shells, items that Ukrainian forces say are sorely lacking.

Although they've been firing a powerful Soviet Giatsint ("hyacinth") cannon, Bulba and Rakun are not career soldiers and only learned artillery basics after volunteering, like hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians over the past two years. They chose to report to a recruitment center of the 12^th Azov Assault Brigade.

Based on nationalist movements

Since the failure of the summer counter-offensive on the southern fronts in 2023, Ukraine has been debating the necessity and arrangements for mobilizing men of fighting age. Meanwhile, Russia has been stepping up its military pressure in the Donbas in recent months. In this context, volunteer units based on nationalist movements are unique. While they don't include men called up by the army, they are entitled to open their own volunteer recruitment centers, which are often more successful than the traditional way.

For Azov, however, the challenge remains unresolved: The regiment, which defended Mariupol in the spring of 2022, fighting its way into the depths of the Azovstal metallurgical plant before its men surrendered and went into captivity, has been promoted to brigade rank. The unit is set to grow from 1,500 to 7,000 men – no mean feat in a war where the men most determined to fight were already committed as early as 2014 in the Donbas, or after the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022.

There are other problems, not the least of which is the ban imposed by the US Congress on Azov receiving any weapons supplied by the United States to Ukraine, due to its far right past. Its commander, Denys Prokopenko, condemned the situation in his first public statement since returning from captivity in Russia. Transferred to Turkey and then repatriated to Ukraine, he took over command of the brigade, despite Kyiv and Ankara's assurances that Azov officers would not return to combat.

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