Although officially the war in Ukraine began in 2014 with the Russian invasion of Crimea, the real fighting only began in 2022 with the second Russian invasion, and at the time of writing that fighting is well into its third year. With manufacturers like Mars based in Ukraine, it is no surprise that they would make product based on that ongoing conflict, and this is the second such set of Ukraine’s forces to come out of the Mars stable.

This set is basically a second snapshot of Ukraine’s armed forces, much like the first set, so once again we find a selection of figures in running and firing positions, using a variety of weapons. All the poses look nice and natural, and have the liveliness you would expect of soldiers in combat today. Everyone seems to be in the thick of battle, except perhaps for the man in the second row about to launch a drone, which is a nod to one of the most important aspects of modern warfare (although of course you can launch and use drones in a battle too). We liked all the poses, and thought them all very appropriate.

The men all wear the usual fatigues worn by all soldiers these days, and most also have knee protection. All wear body armour, and this is of several designs, but as Ukraine has been given hundreds of thousands of sets of body armour by the international community, as well as developing its own, many styles would be appropriate and those here all look correct. One man wears a baseball cap, and another a soft brimmed hat, but the other six poses all wear helmets. Three of these are the American FAST helmet, and two of the others have the cover with places to add camouflage etc.

Weaponry is always an important aspect of modern war figures, and with the vast array of weapons donated to Ukraine by the rest of the world, the range of possible models is huge. Bearing this in mind, and the fact that many modern weapons look quite similar at this small scale, we have identified what we think are the weapons on show here, but these should be treated as no more than suggestions, indicative of the sort of shape and size of the weapon carried but not necessarily definitive. Starting in the top row, the first figure carries an assault rifle, perhaps the Italian Beretta ARX160. Next are two more assault rifles, both of which look to come from the AK-74 family. The row ends with a man using a grenade launcher, probably the Polish RGP-40. Row two begins with someone firing a machine gun from the shoulder, which looks like an RPD with a belt feed. The kneeling figure also fires a machine gun in the same way, but this time it looks like a Zastava M53, originally made in Yugoslavia and based closely on the old German MG42. The third man with the drone has a submachine gun slung on his back (so many of these look the same it is impossible to be sure of the model – our guess would be the Czech Skorpion), and the last soldier is using a 9K38 Igla Anti-aircraft Rocket Launcher. The detail on all of these is pretty good, and if our identifications are correct then all of them are examples of what you would find on the battlefield today.

The usual Mars sculpting is really nice, with good levels of detail on the equipment and weapons on show. The faces are great, and the general anatomy very well done, with good, natural movement. Most of the seams have a minimal ridge between the moulds, and there are a couple of small tabs of flash, but these are quite clean figures that many will feel can be painted and used without the need to do any trimming.

In view of the vast array of equipment that the modern Ukrainian soldier might be using, just eight poses is never going to do more than skim the surface of the subject, but we made the same point with the first set, and so clearly adding more sets like this will expand the coverage in a satisfactory way. So this set is really just more of the same on the subject, and it has been really well done, nicely designed, with none of the moulding issues that some previous Mars sets have suffered from. Accuracy is perfect, as you would expect with the evidence being on their doorstep, making this a very attractive new addition to the depiction of the troops battling to resist Putin’s attempted land grab.