This story is based on reporting originally published in Arizona State University’s warfare and counterinsurgency outlet Small Wars Journal.
For three Ukrainian veterans who visited Arizona in late April, the war did not begin with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It began in 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity, also known as Maidan, ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Russia then seized Crimea and backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
Cactus and Tryzub, a Phoenix-based Ukraine support initiative, sponsored the visit to counter misinformation and give Arizonans a chance to hear directly from people who have fought in the war.
At an April 30 panel hosted by the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, Mykola Melnyk, a retired senior lieutenant in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, described how much the war has changed.
“When the war started in 2014, it was the war between the soldiers, between the platoons, between the checkpoints,” Melnyk said. “In 2022, it was a classical war, like World War II with air defense. What you’d see in movies. But now we have a war of the future. You have tactical drones, reconnaissance drones, ground drones. Drones, drones, drones.”
The three men joined the Ukrainian army as volunteers. Denys Haida, a retired senior soldier-operator, said Ukrainian fighters were severely underequipped in those early days.
“In 2014, we didn’t have anything, no bulletproof vests, no helmets, no military boots,” Haida said. “If you wanted to have a rifle, you had to kill a Russian.”
Today, the veterans said, the battlefield looks very different. Melnyk said soldiers now have to understand not only weapons, but also drones, medicine and technology.
Lynndy Smith, who leads the Arizona Defense and Industry Coalition, said that rapid evolution is one of the reasons it is important for American audiences and companies to hear from people with direct battlefield experience.
“Ukraine would come out with a drone with some unique GPS capabilities. Within two weeks, Russia will learn how to counter it,” Smith said. “Ukraine will come out with another phase of that technology and they will operate for two weeks and then Russia will figure out how to jam it.”
Smith travels to Ukraine frequently. She said Ukraine’s advantage is not only innovation, but the speed at which Ukrainians adapt under pressure.
“The best way to get input on the defense industry is to talk to those on the ground,” Smith said. “The enemy is learning very quickly. The key advantage that Russia has is the number of people they have access to. Ukraine’s advantage is they move even quicker and, in my opinion, they are more innovative.”
Smith said Ukrainian officials and defense leaders are not only asking for direct supplies such as drones or munitions. They are also looking for companies willing to set up operations inside Ukraine, localize production, participate in research and development and help build the country’s defense ecosystem.
Ukraine now produces the vast majority of the drones it uses on the battlefield, a step toward greater self-sufficiency.
A few days after the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations event, the local Ukrainian Community Center in Phoenix looked festive, its interior punctuated by blue and yellow. Children greeted the veterans with karavai, a traditional sweet bread offered with salt as a Ukrainian gesture of welcome.
The moment was warm and ceremonial, but the physical cost of war was ever present. Before each speaking engagement, the veterans changed into uniforms. Afterward, they returned to civilian clothes. Melnyk has a prosthetic leg and needs a few extra seconds to stand up and sit down.
At the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations event, someone asked what life in the trenches is like.
“It’s hard. It’s mud. It’s blood,” Melnyk said. “Every day you lost your friends. … And sometimes you don’t feel anything. You stay like machine who must protect your country and kill enemies.”
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