Scripps News' Jason Bellini highlights the men and women on the front lines and in the skies defending their home base in the Ukraine-Russia war.
A long-awaited counteroffensive could turn the tide of the war, but its success depends on the courage and ingenuity of Ukraine's citizen soldiers.
These are their stories: Pilots who hug the land and pray for F-16s; a sister who lost her brother and followed his footsteps into war; and an infantryman chronicling life on the zero line, knowing his own life could be cut short in an instant.
This is Ukraine in the spring of 2023.
