Three days before Christmas, Iryna Hazhev is sitting in a restaurant on the outskirts of Lviv, in Western Ukraine. The 24-year-old, a captain in a mortar battery of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, is on a break from deployment. She wears her military uniform but is giving herself the liberty of some civilian flourishes, including gold loop earrings and blue nail polish. She seems relaxed – or as relaxed as can be for a soldier about to be sent to Bakhmut, in the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine, the site of some of the war’s fiercest fighting.
#Ukraine: Another Russian cruise missile (Kh-101/Kh-55) was shot down by Ukrainian 9K38 Igla MANPADS operators today. Two 9M39 missiles are fired, with one striking the target. pic.twitter.com/5MS92CFiTx
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) December 29, 2022
