Why invaders feared Leonid Sukhatskyi and his tank named 'Little Friend'

Before 2014, Leonid worked ordinary civilian jobs — eight years in a fire brigade, then filling gas tanks in his hometown. When war broke out, he dusted off his old army training and volunteered for the 17th Tank Brigade.

He took standard tank gunnery as a mere suggestion: direct fire at four kilometers was fine, but he trained to lob shells indirectly at ten kilometers just to give the enemy a nasty surprise.

During the defense of Mariupol, his crew took out three enemy armored vehicles and won two direct tank duels. The enemy grew so terrified of his machine they dubbed it "Black Death." Leonid just chuckled and called his T-64 "our little friend" — because a real friend always gets someone out of trouble. Ukrainian infantry called the crew guardian angels because quite often, just having his engine rumble onto a ridge was enough to make enemy artillery abruptly shut up.

The cruelest irony of war remains how men who repeatedly win duels against heavy armor can end up taken by a slick rural road and an ordinary reconnaissance car accident.