Overnight train, Kyiv to Odesa —  “Kick the door.” The soldier drinking tea on a makeshift seat in the anteroom of a Ukrainian Railways train car could only watch so many unsuccessful attempts to latch the door between carriages, whatever the language barrier. Instructions and clarifications ensued; the obstinate door yielded to the prescribed “arm-kick,” and we got to talking about the war.

“When people die, all days, all days, all nights, when the shooting, when the mines, artillery — it’s scary … Any [every] man scared for your [own] life,” said Leonid C., an army medic with stitches in his cheek and a brace on his right arm and hand. “You say [to] your wife, your daughter, that you [will] come to home. You must be tough.”