Photograph released on November 4, 2025, by the press service of the 24th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Infantry soldiers from a motorized battalion rest in a shelter on the front line near the town of Chasiv Yar, in the Donetsk region, on October 25, 2025. HANDOUT / AFP
Their uniforms were caked in mud and their beards thick, but the two tired men smiled for the camera. The photo of these Ukrainian infantrymen, arms around each other after a long mission, was widely shared on the country's social media on Monday, November 3. Oleksandr Aliksyenko and Oleksandr Tykhaiev were decorated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with the Cross of Military Merit, the army's highest distinction, for holding their position on the front line without interruption for 165 days. According to the Territorial Defense Forces' Facebook page, no fewer than 30 evacuation attempts were made during that time, all unsuccessful due to the intensity of the fighting and the constant surveillance by Russian drones over the battlefield. It was only after a thick fog settled in, at the end of October, that the two infantrymen were finally able to leave their post.
The news of their return was celebrated as a mark of the heroism of Ukrainian soldiers. But it also drew attention to a trend that is worsening as the war drags on: the lengthening of infantry soldiers' service times, which can be explained both by technological developments on the front lines and the lack of infantrymen in the army. DeepState, a Ukrainian front-line monitoring group, reminded people in a Telegram post that the two men are among the "thousands of heroes" still holding their ground. "Is that something to be proud of? Absolutely not, because this is now a major problem," the group wrote, stating that Ukrainian fighters on average are now sent to the front for 100 to 200 days at a time.
