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On February 27, Russian paratrooper Nikita Eroshkin fought for her life at Hostomel airport in Kyiv.
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Ukrainian forces had attacked. They wanted to regain control of the strategically important airport.
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On March 11, family and friends said goodbye to the young soldier in his hometown of Derevyannoye. Nikita was laid in an open coffin and dressed in uniform.
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The battle for Kyiv became a military disaster for the Russian elite forces. What went wrong? The lessons learned from the fighting can have a profound effect on the next phase of the Ukraine war.
Commander Nikita Yerushkin (21) and his fellow soldiers belonged to the highest, most trained and most modern units in the Russian army.
They thought they would take Kyiv in a few days. Instead, they ended up in the middle of a cruel massacre.
What really happened when Russia suffered one of its biggest military defeats since World War II?
When Nikita was buried at home in Karelia, one of his friends told what they experienced.
The stories of the slain elite soldiers show what went wrong with Putin’s war machine. And why the next big battle in the Donbas could be much worse.
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