Russia advances in Ukraine as it faces global criticism after Navalny’s death: Live updates

Lychakiv military cemetery in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv opened shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. It is now a sea of hundreds of graves and flags for fallen soldiers. 

Liubov told CNN that her son returned from abroad to volunteer for the fight. He was killed last month in the Donetsk region. 

“He went to liberate our Ukraine,” she cried. “He said ‘Mom, I’m going to defend you.’”

Liubov’s son was killed last month in the Donetsk region. 

“The guys have no weapons, they have nothing to fight with,” she said on the freezing winter morning. “Believe me, my child used to buy his uniform with his own money!” 

Ahead of the second anniversary of the war, families are wrestling with the prolonged absence and often loss of their loved ones.

It comes as parliament debates whether there needs to be a call to mobilize more troops to the front. Ukraine is under mounting pressure on the battlefield, where lack of ammunition has become a crucial problem. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke candidly about this at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend. 

“I’m telling you frankly, we don’t have long-range weapons,” he told Amanpour. “Russia has it, and we have too little of that.”

At a recruitment office for the Army’s Third Assault brigade, CNN found 43-year-old Volodymyr, a builder, signing up for the fight. 

When Sergent Pavlo Dokin, who oversees recruitment in this office, was asked about morale, he said:

“People should understand that we are fighting a strong enemy who should not be underestimated, and that the general mood is hard for everyone. But we have no choice, this is our home, and we have nowhere to go.”