Chechyna
Mykhailo "Chechyna" Dementiev: From Chernivtsi in western Ukraine, Misha was a university student who had already served a term in the Ukrainian Armed Forces (2009) before he became active in the Euromaidan Revolution, believing that Russian aggression against Ukraine would soon escalate. From Maidan, he trained near Kyiv with other volunteers to prepare for war, and by July joined the Aydar Volunteer Battalion on the frontline where he stayed and fought in the Luhansk region until 2015. Today, Misha works for an IT company in Chernivtsi. Read excerpt from Misha's story