Vasyl Krupych knows what it is to fight for Ukraine.
He describes terrifying scenes from battles in the eastern Donbas region where, sometimes praying, sometimes crying, the machine gunner somehow survived the onslaught by Russian troops.
But last December, by then serving in the rear, Krupych was attacked by his own countrymen whilst out searching for draft dodgers.
He says two men ignored demands to show their documents and fled. When his patrol gave chase, Krupych was badly beaten with a crowbar. He spent six weeks in hospital.
“He broke my rib, I was lying there and couldn’t breathe,” the veteran recalled in a recent interview.
“What did we fight for, if soldiers can now get beaten?”
Surge in violence
Ukraine’s military ombudswoman says such attacks are now “regular” and “a major problem” as the country struggles to mobilise men to fight in the fifth, draining year of Russia’s full-scale invasion.