Oleksandr Yabchanka, a 42-year-old paediatrician and former health ministry adviser from Lviv, warns Ukrainians that the war with Russia could last for years and require far more people to fight. He is now a platoon commander in the 1st Separate "Da Vinci Wolves" Battalion and has been fighting since the early days of the war. As the two armies pound each other on the front lines, the illusion of normal life prevails in Lviv and elsewhere in Ukraine, where coffee dates and cocktail parties offer some respite from sporadic air strikes and news of civilian casualties.
Fighters like Yabchanka fear that while Ukrainians are broadly united, some are detached from reality as the soldiers see it: that the war could last for years and require far more people to fight, and that a Russian defeat should not be taken for granted. Ukrainians rallied around the cause after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, backing the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and, in many cases, taking up arms. Public morale remains high 19 months later, and people still hail the troops as heroes.
However, Ukrainians still often dismiss Russian troops as incompetent after battlefield failures in 2022 and the recruitment of thousands of convicts to fill their ranks. Kyiv's much-vaunted summer counteroffensive has made only incremental gains amid signs Russian forces are now more effective, and losses are mounting on both sides. Ukraine is revamping military recruitment as the war grinds on, including by replacing heads of regional recruitment offices, punishing draft dodging, and modifying the rules on medical exemptions to fighting on the front.
Many Ukrainians not directly engaged in the war still actively support the cause, with around 68% helping the army or people affected by the war by volunteering or donating. Battle-hardened veterans have expressed concern on local media over the impact on Ukraine's long-term resilience of what they describe as a rose-tinted view of the war or a sense of impatience fuelled by some public figures and journalists.
