These guys are steadily retaking Ukrainian territory on the eastern front, and despite their exhausted appearance, they can smell victory, according to Sky’s special correspondent Alex Crawford.
They have a lot of self-assurance and confidence right now. They are eager to retake more, too.
I asked the soldiers: “How confident are you about retaking Severodonetsk, Lysychansk?”
One replied: “100%. This is Ukraine.”
Lyman is their biggest win on the battlefield in weeks and the first since President Vladimir Putin declared this Russian territory.
So tearing down the Russian flags inside Lyman is delivered with particular relish.
Seizing Lyman it is hoped will be the launchpad to reclaim even more land in the east.
The Ukrainians have been celebrating with their foreign friends who have fought alongside them.
Now they’re pushing forward. The road to Lyman is littered with the discards of fierce fighting but the Ukrainians say they have also surrounded their enemy in parts of Lysychansk nearly 60km (37 miles) away.
A soldier said: “Now they are on the Lysychansk plant. They are surrounded, they will be pushed back and the road to Lysychansk will be opened.”
Neighbouring towns, like Siversk, have suffered badly in the fight to retake Lyman – with house after house destroyed. Those still here are just clinging to hope.
A local man said: “I want peace. I want that my parents will be alive. I want that my wife will be alive. Nothing more.”
But Russians are still close enough to instill much fear.
Forty minutes south, the ferocity of the Russian assault is stark in Bakhmut. This was the Ukrainians’ key military hub for the east, now blasted to bits and a virtual ghost town.
There are enormous craters that have utterly changed the geography around here and ripped the heart out of the town.
The holdouts move around in a war-torn haze – weary and tearful.
Irina said: “These borders that they’re trying to change. It’s for those who divide. They divide big money between them and they don’t care about us people, the people who are living here. I’m sorry because a lot of my friends died. Big politics is filthy.”
Victory tastes very different depending on where you are.
The Russians are still on the edges of Bakhmut fighting and making their presence very much felt.
I asked a local man: “Did you think the Russians were close to coming in?”
He replied: “You understand maybe for a little while they will succeed, but everyone wants the opposite. But here there are a lot of collaborators, a lot, and they are saying a lot of terrible things.
“I start arguing with them, which I shouldn’t do, because God forbid if they do come here, those people will be first who betray.”
The Ukrainians are hoping the battle of Lyman may prove a turning point in this war but so many and so much has been sacrificed already.