Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Courtesy of Troy Offenbecker
Troy Offenbecker, a former U.S. Marine who has been fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine since June of last year, was supposed to be on a break.
He’d been fighting with the 3rd Bbattalion of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion and had taken several days off to try to decompress last week. Then his buddies in a different unit—the 1st Battalion—called him up to see if he wanted to attempt an assault on Russian forces near Bakhmut, where heavy fighting has been underway for months. The team said they had worked out a way to cut around the Russian drones’ thermal imaging.
Ukrainian military officials have repeatedly stated Bakhmut is a key focus of Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces. Just days before this mission, Ukrainian officials announced that the counteroffensive had begun in earnest. Russians had been trying and failing to seize Bakhmut from Ukraine for months, suffering what America’s top general called a “slaughter-fest for the Russians” in March, eventually claiming victory in May.