Halfway around the world on Veterans Day — the day when we honor service men and women who would have given everything to defend this nation’s freedoms — another country’s military remains engaged in a colossal David vs. Goliath war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Friday that his country’s special military units had entered the city of Kherson, a strategically key city in the fight for control of Ukraine. The announcement came a short time after Russia acknowledged it had completed troop withdrawal from the major regional capital Russian forces had captured in March.

In Ukraine, The Associated Press reported residents took to the streets to celebrate Russia’s retreat.

Moscow continues to face intense resistance from Ukrainian citizen fighters leaving some to argue this just might be the greatest underdog story ever told.

But back here in the Mahoning Valley, Brookfield native Dr. Nick Kupensky, an Associate Professor of Russian for the U.S. Air Force Academy, who spent many years living in Ukraine, in recent weeks compared the fight to another one in history that occurred much closer to home.

“When you see people refusing to leave their homes, or fighting to the death, they are not doing it because they are pro-American (although they are). They are doing these things because they are us,” Kupensky told hundreds of people who listened. “Their fight against tyranny echoes our fight in the Revolutionary War.”

Kupensky now lives in Colorado with his wife Olena Andriushchenko, a native of Ukraine. He was back home in the Valley on Nov. 3 serving as a keynote speaker for Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber’s annual Economic Forecast breakfast meeting at the Eastwood Event Centre in Niles. Growing up in the Valley, Kupensky had worked on the Tribune Chronicle’s teen page staff and later freelanced for our newspaper.

Several months ago, our reporter Raymond Smith interviewed Kupensky’s wife by phone as she fretted over the safety of her parents and other family in Ukraine.

During his recent visit, Kupensky told me his in-laws had escaped Ukraine safely, but now are living what undoubtedly is a challenging life as refugees outside their homeland.

Kupensky spoke with great knowledge about the war and the European region.

During his speech, he predicted that Ukraine soon would retake Kherson, taken over by Russia early in March.

“This will be very important because if it’s successful, they will be able to start talking about Crimea again,” Kupensky said, referring to a Russian-occupied area seized by Moscow in 2014.

Friday, nine days after Kupensky’s Niles speech, Russia’s Defense Ministry said troops had withdrawn from the western bank of the river that divides Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to The Associated Press.

Social media posts showed jubilant residents waving Ukrainian flags and chanting in celebration, the AP reported. A Ukrainian flag flew over a monument in a central Kherson square for the first time since March.

At that point, though, Ukrainian officials had not yet confirmed the city was in Ukrainian hands. Zelenskyy said Russian forces placed mines in the city and that after troops enter they will be followed by sappers, rescue workers and energy personnel. Despite the daunting tasks ahead, “Medicine, communications, social services are returning. … Life is returning,” Zelenskyy said with optimism.

Still, Moscow’s forces control about 70 percent of the Kherson region, the AP reports.

One Ukrainian woman told the AP, “It’s a very significant day for Ukraine because it shows the entire world that Ukraine can and definitely will defend every square kilometer and inch of territory.”

Of course, this war is far from over.

And just like soldiers in our fledgling colonies fought our own David vs. Goliath war for independence from the British mothership in the late 1700s, the bloody war in Ukraine is sure to drag on for some time to come.

But with each day this war continues in Ukraine, the confidence and resilience of Ukrainians leave many around the world stunned and inspired.

“They want their freedom to choose their own future,” Kupensky said. “They know the feeling of liberty and will never give it up.”

Linert is editor of the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.

blinert@tribtoday.com