A Ukrinform correspondent attended the patch presentation ceremony at the 141st Separate Mechanized Brigade.
Fifty of the brigade’s soldiers received brigade patches, and battalion commanders received banners. Those who have looked the enemy in the face all say the same about this insignia: it is not a sticker on your sleeve, it is something you earn with honour and devotion.
For security reasons, we are not disclosing details of the event. We will only say that the presentation resembles a ritual: with torches being lit, tribute paid to the fallen and the worthy honoured.
“At the front there is nothing more valuable than a brother-in-arms’ shoulder”
The commander of the 141st SMB, Bohdan Shevchuk, call sign “Sova”, is a career soldier. He joined the army in 2010 and graduated with honours from the Zhytomyr Military Institute.
He does not hide that things have become harder than a year ago. The grey zone is growing and logistics are becoming more difficult — and this is changing the very mechanics of the war.
In 2023 you could still drive up to the positions; in 2024 it was already impossible to get within 3 km; now it is not three but 5–6 km, and that distance keeps growing. Three to five runs for a UGV is the maximum. And five means you got lucky. The vast majority of needs are supplied from the air.
Bohdan Shevchuk
The brigade is developing unmanned systems and unmanned ground vehicles, looking for camouflage that keeps a position from being spotted by a drone, installing cameras and thermal imagers, and developing new ways of detecting FPV drones.
A lost tree line, the brigade commander says, means nothing. What is hard is losing people.
When a position goes silent on the radio and you don’t know what has happened to them — that is the hardest thing.
Bohdan Shevchuk
“Obama”: from Soledar to a Mavic controller
His brothers-in-arms gave him the call sign as a joke, because of his dark skin. He is from the Mykolaiv region, lived on the border with the Kherson region, and at the start of the full-scale war found himself almost in occupied territory. In 2022 he was twenty and had just returned from conscript service. He had no time to find a job or to enjoy himself — he went back to the army. He ended up in the 77th Air Assault Brigade, followed by Soledar and Bakhmut.
My legs went like cotton wool, some kind of fear set in, but it’s kill or be killed. We were in Soledar, clearing the area. We went into one of the houses and there was a whole bunch of them in there, we had to fight back. We lost a lot of people then, but we held them off.
Obama
He came to the 141st in 2025. He talks about it with a smile and a little embarrassment: after being wounded he went off for treatment on his own, and during a document check he found out he was listed in the database as AWOL (SZCh). He explained the situation, he had no intention of hiding — and he was offered a transfer to the brigade. He has now been here for five months as a UAV pilot: he flies a Mavic, adjusts artillery fire and conducts reconnaissance.
He also talks about his plans after the war with a smile: the main thing is to live that long. And asked whether he is proud of the patch or whether it is more for his mum, he answers with a joke — his mum knows her son is fed and wearing a hat, and that is enough for her.
Stepan and “Dykyi Hin”
Stepan is thirty, from the Rivne region, and worked in Kyiv as a programmer. He was mobilised in July 2023 — while on his way to donate blood for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He did not try to fight it or “dodge” service.
He went straight to the 141st, where a new UAV battalion was being formed at the time. The unit was redeployed to the Zaporizhzhia direction, to the Robotyne area. Stepan trained as an FPV pilot and quickly mastered his new profession.
I’m on fire for this now. Unmanned systems are my life’s work. I asked a friend to draw us an emblem, came up with a name — and now ‘Dykyi Hin’ has grown from a platoon into a company.
Stepan
The name comes from Scandinavian mythology — the Wild Hunt: riders who race across the sky and punish enemies. Stepan says the equipment has to be upgraded literally every three or four months. He would like to master long-range strike fixed-wing drones himself — “to fly in where they feel safe”.
He waited two years for his patch.
The patch matters. It is a sign that you have earned it through your work, it is an honour. Only those who have earned it should wear the patch.
Stepan
“Vidma”: I see what others don’t
In civilian life she is nurse Halyna Mykhailivna. She studied in Sevastopol and worked in maxillofacial surgery, then in an operating department. She explains her call sign, which means “witch”, with a smile: she sees what others don’t see and hears what others don’t hear.
When the full-scale war began, she went to the military enlistment office. For a long time they would not take her — but she got her way. In 2023, when a new battalion was being formed, the battalion commander asked: “Halyna, will you join us?” She told her mum that she was teaching the boys tactical medicine in Lviv. Her mum believed it until she saw an interview with her.
On 19 April, on the Donetsk direction, guided aerial bombs (KABs) struck the very house where the evacuation team was based. The house burned down, the vehicle burned down, and Halyna suffered head and leg wounds. For a month she learned to walk again.
When the warning came that a bomb was already incoming, the driver she worked with on evacuations said “Mykhailivna, hold on” — and shielded her with his body.
That driver’s name was Ivan Hasiak, call sign “Franko”. He was killed on 28 November — in thick fog, the vehicle ran over an unidentified device.
Our aid station is our family. Everyone here is there for one another. This is a great loss for us. When we heard over the radio that he had been killed, we didn’t believe it at first.
“Vidma”, combat medic of the 141st SMB
After the war Halyna wants to return to trauma care — she already has offers, but tells everyone that she is needed more here right now. She advises her brothers-in-arms not to get attached to one another, because losing someone afterwards is too hard. And she knows herself that not getting attached is impossible. That is why she teaches them tactical medicine — so that they are ready and nobody dies.
Asked whether the war will end soon, she answers without embellishment:
Not soon, but there will definitely be an end.
“Vidma”
We showed the same torch ritual earlier — “Flame of Brotherhood”.
In the media
Ukrinform · 8 December 2025
“The brigade patch — a distinction for the best”
Text — Olha Zvonarova. Photos — Dmytro Smolienko / Ukrinform
Read the original on Ukrinform →
