Cooking for Ukrainian troops on the front line is not easy.

Recently, a Russian strike blew out the windows and the glass door of the oven in a kitchen on a military base in eastern Ukraine. Pvt. Yaroslav Breus and his team quickly replaced the door and resumed cooking.

“Considering where we are now, this meal might be the last one,” Private Breus said as he prepared pork steaks fried in batter and borscht for several hundred soldiers, surrounded by steaming cauldrons and sizzling pans.

Also on the menu: beetroot salad sprinkled with roasted walnuts and boiled potatoes with melted butter topped with parsley.

Even as they battle relentless Russian assaults under harsh conditions, the soldiers of his unit, the First Assault Battalion of the Third Assault Brigade, can consider themselves lucky in one respect. They are eating relatively well.

Private Breus, 31, a former chef from Veranda, a prestigious Kyiv restaurant, once competed on the Ukrainian version of the television show “MasterChef,” where he wore a distinctive headband and received praise for his borscht.