Far from the front lines, Ukrainians guard checkpoints and wait for the war to come

On a road outside Lviv in western Ukraine, a half-dozen men, bundled up against the cold and wind, huddle around a rusted oil drum fashioned into a wood-burning stove. Smoke billows from a crooked pipe jutting from the top.

This, for now, is their war — guarding a checkpoint hundreds of miles from the battles raging to the east.

They’ve piled sandbags on top of concrete blocks. A blue and yellow Ukrainian flag tied to a stick flutters in the wind.