The memorable date was not chosen by chance. It was on this day in 2014 that the first 500 volunteer fighters of the Maidan Self-Defense left Maidan Nezalezhnosti for the training base in Novy Petrivtsi to form the first volunteer battalion. This day was established in order to remember what our country has already gone through and what it is going through right now. People of various professions unite in order to fight against the Russian occupiers. We thank everyone for their courage and devotion to Ukraine. Together to victory! Glory to Ukraine!

Another day with good results from artillerists of 128th brigade. -1 BMP and -1 «Kamaz».

"On the Bakhmut' direction, a sniper is working towards us on one side, and artillery is shelling on another. And we eat canned pineapples and laugh..." - Before the war, I had a great job - I worked as a cook on a cruise ship. I speak English fluently, had a very decent salary, traveled to African countries, France, Spain, the entire Mediterranean. I could have continued to work quietly, but I decided to join AFU and immediately signed a contract for three years. Although I had no military expirience. Why did I join the army? Because I see what terrible things the Russians are doing, and I want to personally put an end to it. In the direction of Bakhmut, we occupied a position on the outskirts of the village for a week. In the evening, when it was already dark, an enemy assault group of eight men showed up around our position. In front of the positions, two our fighters were hiding in "secret" (hidden position), and I told them to leave. But they decided to accept the combat, because they were too close to the enemy. We immediately gathered our group and rushed to help. Six Russians were killed, two escaped. Only one of us was wounded in that battle - me. I went into battle with a "Pokémon" (PKM - Kalashnikov machine gun upgraded) and when one of the enemies got too close, I shot him at close range. While falling, he managed to shoot, the bullet hit me in the leg. Then other fighters examined the killed. Apparently, these were "Wagners". Some are dressed in our pixel uniform. "Wagners" behave very brazenly on the battlefield - crawl under bullets, walk over the corpses of their fighters, it seems as if they are high. We put a lot of them there. If combat organized correctly, one machine gunner can mow down up to 50 enemies. You don't feel fear during the fight. But after the battle, when you analyze, you realize that you didn't always behave wisely. You get used to the constant shooting over time and it dulls the sense of danger. Somehow our position was detected and began to be covered from different sides. A sniper works from one side, and an artillery and mortar from another side. And we opened canned pineapples, we eat and laugh. It's not very right to behave like that... I studied in Britain last year. We were trained by instructors who fought in Syria and Afghanistan. I explained that Ukraine is not at war with the Taliban, who are armed with "Kalash" and other light weapons, we have a different situation. But in general, the training was very interesting and useful. Therefore, after the war, I myself plan to become an instructor in order to share military experience with soldiers from other countries.

Laugh, then, ferocious foe, (6) But not too loudly, for our fame Will never be laid low. It will not perish, but proclaim The annals of our age, What is our justice, what our wrong, And what our parentage. Our epic and our ancient song For ever shall remain, And that is where our glory lies, The glory of Ukraine. Taras Shevchenko

"We destroyed a russian tank at the maximum distance - 4.6 kilometers from our Stugna" - Last month, my unit was stationed in the Donetsk region on the outskirts of a village. And one russian tank began to constantly "nightmared" our positions - it left for half a minute, fired 4-6 times and immediately hid in the shelter. Tank shelling is, to speak in army terms, a complete horror, so I was tasked to track and destroy the enemy. But it turned out to be very difficult to detect him, especially since the tank sometimes fired from a hidden position. My field of view was large, so I had to change fire position several times and wait a long time. We tracked this tank for a whole week and did not reveal ourselves, although enemy drones periodically flew over us. That day, we took a firing position - set up the "Stugna", and hid ourselves thirty meters away ("Stugna" can be operated remotly). And then I heard how tank started working somewhere - one shot, another... I started looking through the monitor - turned right, again little bit more right. And finally saw him. The tank was standing at a distance of more than 4.5 kilometers with the frontal armor directly on us, and the gun was turned towards the village where our unit was stationed. I swithed on ATGM, waited for the information field to work on the monitor, and started. A rocket flew out and I was leading to the tank itself ("Stugna" is laser guided). In a few seconds - hit, explosion and smoke! I think the crew died immediately, I really hope so. As the measurements showed, it was possible to destroy the tank at the maximum distance, it was 4.6 kilometers away from our position. I immediately reported on the walkie-talkie that the tank had been destroyed, and our artillery had additionally hit it. After the hit, I didn't have a surge of adrenaline, I didn't want to jump for happiness. But there was a feeling of internal satisfaction that the task had been completed, and that there were a few less enemies (probably experienced ones). Previously, I worked with the "Korsar" ATGM. I will say that "Stugna" is much better - the missile here is more powerful, the range of hitting the target is longer, and the calculation can be launched remotely and be relatively safe. This tank has already become my third destroyed target. I destroyed the first two last year in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The commander of the 128th separate mountain-assault Transcarpathian brigade, Colonel Dmytro Lysyuk, awarded the fighters of the 15th separate mountain-assault battalion and the 2nd rifle battalion, who heroically defend our homeland. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi repeatedly thanked the fighters in his address.