![]() ![]() All three of them wore the same pin.Įlliot Ackerman: The rivalry that defines AmericaĪfter the event, my interpreter told me that veterans of the Soviet war existed in a cultural limbo in Ukraine, which was why these men so appreciated any public discussion about Afghanistan. ![]() Because I was a veteran of the American Afghan War, they wanted to present me with a lapel pin from the Union of Veterans of Afghanistan as a gesture of friendship. My interpreter explained that these three men were Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. But he was already holding my lapel as he pushed a pin through it. When he took something from his pocket and reached for me, I flinched. ![]() They each had a thick neck, cropped hair, and a thigh-length black leather jacket. Then, out of the dark recesses of the auditorium, three men in their mid-50s approached me. After an hour’s discussion, the cadets filed back to their barracks. The auditorium was mostly filled with fresh-faced cadets and their instructors, some of whom had recently returned from fighting in the east. In 2016, two years after Russia’s invasion of Crimea and the Donbas, I was invited to the Kyiv Suvorov Military School to present the Ukrainian edition of my novel set in Afghanistan. ![]()
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