The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
Soldier of the 103rd Territorial Defense Brigade named after Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi, Liubomyr Mikalo, together with his comrades, held a position for 4
The defender, who was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the Golden Star on December 5, 2025, shared this episode in an interview with ArmyInform.
“In May, we were attached to a ranger brigade of the Air Assault Forces. On that axis, the enemy had been advancing toward the Sumy region since around March. We received the task to move to the settlement of Oleksiivka and take up defense there — on its southern outskirts.
The village was under neither our control nor the enemy’s, but the enemy was trying to push further and further. At the position we were supposed to occupy, there was supposedly a basement. But when we arrived, it had already been destroyed and was burning.
Around us, houses were destroyed, everything was on fire due to enemy and our own fire. So we dismounted directly into the ‘green zone’. Later, our drone found us shelter — another basement, abandoned, with no houses nearby.
The guys guided us there, and we stayed in that basement for 41 days. Every day we held off the enemy, not allowing them to advance. We tried to operate without revealing our position — not with bursts, but with single shots and grenade throws”, — Mikalo said.
According to him, enemy forces had to be eliminated almost daily.
“The official figures are about 25–30 enemy personnel, but unofficially more, as not every case could be confirmed. We eliminated those we saw near our basement. Sometimes we encountered them face to face, at arm’s length.
A drone was almost always above us — ours or from adjacent units. We were constantly being watched.
When we had taken out around five occupiers, we would ask for the area to be checked so we could safely go outside and drag the enemy ‘200s’ away from our position so as not to expose it.
If we didn’t see the enemy but heard them 50–100 meters away, we would request an FPV drone or a drop from a ‘Baba Yaga’, which would arrive, locate, and eliminate them.
So, with our assistance, the enemy was also destroyed. When we went out for supplies — food and water — we would see enemy bodies eliminated by drones”, — Mikalo said.
