On the front lines with a family fighting for Ukraine

This is their first war together. Their first time as soldiers. When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded their land, they went to the army as a family to sign up to fight. Yaroslav is a 59-year-old grandfather. One of his sons, Nazar, 34, has two sons of his own. Another son, Pavlo, 26 has a daughter.They left their wives and children to go the front lines but asked to stay together in their battalion.Fighting as a family and for their family keeps their mission “very easy and simple,” Yaroslav told CNN. “What can I say — we love our country and will stand for it till the very end,” he said. “He was beaten up. It was so scary,” Bozko said, crying softly. “He was shot apparently when he was still alive. There were holes.” Bozko, also a retired teacher in her 60s, now lives with terrible thoughts of her husband’s last moments. Three things give her comfort: Her son, her mother whom she helps keep alive, and the Ukrainian army. As she tells CNN of her family, she pauses to register the deep, rumbling sound of shelling in the distance. It is mortars being fired.She now knows the difference between incoming and outgoing. This is outgoing from the Ukrainian side against the Russians, she says and smiles. “It makes me happy to hear that.”