In the ramshackle, predominantly Roma Radvanka district of Uzhhorod in western Ukraine, a soldier from the beleaguered minority proudly showed off a bravery award signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky. With shrapnel from Russian bombs still lodged in his arm from fighting around Mariupol, 31-year-old Viktor Ilchak tells AFP that "there, at the front, it doesn't matter if you are a Roma, a Hungarian, or someone else. Everyone is the same there. There we considered each other brothers." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES