Ukraine LIVE: Poland boosts Zelensky by sending tanks as PM takes swipe at 'mad' Putin

In 2021, Mirik – his military call sign – gave up his job, his life, his friends, and his family to make the gruelling overland journey from Belarus to eastern Ukraine.

Once there, he signed up to fight for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in an isolated but fierce war that had been raging for seven years. He was 21 years old.

He did not envisage that in two years’ time, he would be fighting as part of a much larger regiment specifically set up for Belarusians like himself who wanted to stop a common enemy – Russia – in a full-scale war.

Speaking from a wooded area somewhere in eastern Ukraine, he told Express.co.uk: “It is so much harder now. Every fight could be your last one. But we won’t give up.”

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