Ievgen Malik grew up in Poltava — one of the most historically loaded cities in Ukraine, home to the 1709 battle that ended the last independent Ukrainian hetmanate. He studied international relations in the Czech Republic, watched Maidan from abroad, and understood immediately what Crimea meant. He tried to enlist in 2014. His parents stopped him. In 2018, he went to Mykolaiv, signed a contract with the 1st Separate Marine Battalion — Ukraine's oldest — and then went home and showed his parents the paper.

This episode is the origin story. Sam Cook sits down with Senior Sergeant Malik to trace the path from civilian life to the frontlines: what made him a Marine, what life in the battalion was really like, and what it meant to fight for Mariupol — a city that had no way out — for nearly two months, knowing from the very first march that the only outcomes were death or captivity.

The next two episodes (Ep8 and Ep9), with Rob Lee, pick up exactly where this one ends.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction (Sam Cook)

09:24 Poltava: Growing Up at the Heart of Ukraine

11:01 Two Statues, One City — Peter the Great and Mazepa

15:29 Maidan and the Question of Identity

16:48 Crimea Changes Everything — "War With Aliens Would End Faster"

19:30 Donbas 2014: 138,000 Soldiers on Paper

21:27 Coming Back to Ukraine in 2015

23:52 Army: Plan B Becomes Plan A

26:36 Mykolaiv: Signing the Contract Without Telling His Parents

27:03 Basic Training: This Is Not the Movies

29:29 Life in the Battalion — Living on the Range

32:29 Two Rotations Before the War

35:19 February 24, 2022: "Take Your Stuff and Come to Mariupol"

38:53 One Week Before the Storm

41:20 The War Starts: Holding the Northeast of the City

47:13 Weapons, Ammunition, and What They Had to Fight With

55:14 Under Russian Artillery

1:07:28 The Retreat: 15 Kilometers on Foot

1:15:17 The Left Flank Collapses — the 53rd Breaks

1:19:43 Village by Village

1:22:52 Completely Surrounded: The Order to Hold

1:25:59 Neptune, Charlie, Agla — the Factory Positions

1:32:12 Selecting the Best of the Best

1:33:46 One Month at Agla: March 16 to the End

1:34:54 Night Fights Without Night Vision — the Man With the Lighter

1:37:28 "They Truly Believed It Would Be Three Weeks"

1:38:16 A Month Under Aircraft, Iskanders, and Artillery

1:39:00 Running Out of Food — and Cigarettes

1:42:14 "When You Don't See the Way Out, You Start to Do Crazy Things"

1:46:39 "We Knew We Were Done From the Neptune March"

1:47:44 What the Battle of Mariupol Actually Changed

1:51:52 Sponsors

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