Sappers risk their lives to win Ukraine back, inch by inch

IN THIS GAME, 50 centimetres can make all the difference. “Tsar”, a 35-year-old veterinarian turned combat engineer, was part of a five-man group demining fields near Robotyne on June 27th. The sappers were three hours into their early-morning mission when artillery duels began. First came the —not in itself a signal to stop working. But then came , which began to explode overhead. “You know where you are with mortars. With clusters you’re in one of two camps: lucky or unlucky.” Tsar escaped with shrapnel injuries in the soft tissue of his backside, from which he is recovering in the local hospital. Five tourniquets could not save his comrade Dima Shulgin, just 50 centimetres to his side. He died from bleeding the next day, aged 35.