“It was inevitable,” Caesar said, referring to the extent of russian troop deployments around Ukraine before the invasion on 24 February 2022.

Caesar is another intelligence officer from the ‘Kabul Nine’, whose combat path was described in a large article by The Globe & Mail about the elite Special Forces personnel of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

“Kyrylo Budanov told us to prevent the capture of Kyiv, because if the capital of Ukraine is captured, the war will be over,” Caesar recalled a conversation with the chief of military intelligence at the beginning of the great war.

“We all understood that if we were captured or surrounded, we would have no chance of surviving,” he added.

When the russians were advancing on Kyiv, Caesar and Marcus (another Special Forces officer), who had participated in the Kabul mission, were sent to Brovary (a town on the outskirts of the capital), to prepare defence against a 60-kilometre convoy of russian military equipment.

Episodes of that battle were captured on video: the first russian tank was hit, apparently at close range, by anti-tank weapons, and the rest of the convoy – at least three dozen vehicles – it was decided to turn back in panic.

Chaos ensued, and fire of Ukrainians hit another enemy tank, this time one of those at the end of the convoy. The remaining tanks retreated at maximum speed, leaving behind two burning vehicles and their crews.

“Skybyn! Are these your guys?” a Canadian journalist wrote to Marcus when he saw the video.

“Yes. Nothing special. Just logic,” he replied, adding a smiley face at the end.