From his hospital bed, a drone pilot's worries about the counteroffensive

This Ukrainian fighter is concerned that his countrymen — and the rest of the world — are slipping into the habit of viewing the war as the new normal.

The last thing Andriy Stepanenko* remembers is a bright flash, and then his fellow soldiers dragging him away on his back. 

He had been leaving Bakhmut, the flashpoint of Ukrainian-Russian fighting in eastern Ukraine, after a grueling 72 hour shift flying drones over enemy positions.

That was the usual, exhausting tempo: three days, half awake, straight t…