Defeat revealed a particular bitter detail in the fading light of dusk. For the last fifteen Ukrainian soldiers holding out in their isolated hilltop base, the indignity of being forced from their position at gunpoint by the scores of Russian troops who burst through the gates on Wednesday evening was bad enough.

However, as the vanquished troops filed out past the barrels of levelled Russian assault rifles, a bleak realisation fell upon them. Among the Russians evicting them were dozens of their own comrades, Ukrainian soldiers who had elected to join the forces of Russian Federation rather than continue to serve Kiev.

“You swear an oath of allegiance only once in your life and a real man should be loyal to that oath right to