Ukraine’s Most Lethal Soldiers
On Ukraine’s front lines, combat patches are currency. Soldiers trade their insignia for those of other units, mostly, but sometimes for alcohol and cigarettes. When I visited earlier this summer, I brought a stack of U.S. Navy patches from my time as an aviator, along with a rucksack that has featured a steady rotation of insignia from soldiers I’ve met in war zones around the world.
The latest addition is a camouflaged crab, the emblem of Ukraine’s 34th Coastal Defense Brigade.