Margarita Koldanova now serves in one of the brigades of the Azov Corps. One reason she enlisted was a growing sense that volunteering was no longer enough. The other was a creative bartender. Before the full-scale invasion, the 34-year-old worked as a marketing manager for coffee shops and restaurants in Kyiv. In the months leading up to February 2022, uncertain whether she was on the right path, she quit her job and left for a jiu-jitsu camp in Barcelona. For roughly a month she had no income at all. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “So when the war starts, I understand that I don’t have any job at all,” she said. “So it’s like at this moment, and I don’t know what to do, or how long it would be, because everything was closed.” Margarita Koldanova, an Azov Corps service member, petting a dog. She then lived paycheck to paycheck, as many people in Kyiv have since the full-scale invasion began. In the early years of the war, Koldanova stayed in the capital and tried to contribute through volunteering and fundraising. The feeling that it was insufficient gradually hardened into a decision. “At some moment I think that everything that I do… it’s like not enough, that I could do more.”