MARIYINKA, Ukraine — A jeep hurtles down a long, potholed road toward the front line. Inside, Misha, Monarch and Dinamo balance their assault rifles between their legs. The mood is upbeat; it has been days since these militiamen traded fire with their enemy entrenched across no man’s land.
They approach a Ukrainian army checkpoint surrounded by untended fields. This should be as far as these three gunmen get. The red-and-black flag fluttering from their SUV shows they belong to Right Sector, an ultranationalist group of paramilitaries banned from the battlefront.
