The little things that keep them going

We visited the troops of the Khartiia Brigade on Christmas Eve and found, as the Ukrainians say, it is a sin to complain.

Editor’s note:

Mass attacks struck Kyiv the day before Zelenskyy and Trump are expected to meet in Washington, D.C.

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A candle lit for a short Christmas service in a home occupied by members of the Khartiia Brigade, in the Kharkiv Region of Ukraine.

The holidays are many things to many people, but it is almost universally a time for reflection.

I joked last year around this time that I was feeling exhausted down to my very bone marrow. If that was the case then, well, my mitochondria are flickering on and off now, whining and grinding, as if to ask: ‘Is this all *strictly necessary*?’

When – as happened over the last day – the night was filled with loud explosions, the water cut off for the first time ever, and you awake in a cold room without power, there is even a temptation to feel sorry for one’s self.

But as they say in Ukraine, it’s a sin to complain.

And nowhere is there less room for self-pity than when you are standing next to a soldier who has spent years facing down death, destruction and grief with no schedule for relief.

A Christmas tree in a basement office for the Khartiia Brigade, on Christmas Eve.