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“It was always very nice here, the people were happy, they were happy with their life and enjoyed it.

“Then just looking now at the city that’s burning, that’s being destroyed and it’s horrible to look at. You couldn’t really drive through the city because the streets there were covered with trees in some places and they were parts of houses. Destruction.”

The Ukrainian is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of his generation and currently has the longest active unbeaten streak in all of MMA at 26-0. On May 13 he should have defended his world welterweight title at Bellators Event at Wembley Arena in London.

Chasing Khabib Nurmagomedov’s unbeaten record of 29-0, Amosov was due to face Michael Page in a much-anticipated bout before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced him to retreat.

The 28-year-old had returned home from a training camp in Thailand four days before the war began. As Russian troops advanced, Amosov said he got his wife and six-month-old son to safety on the outskirts of Ukraine before joining the Territorial Defense to help civilians in and around Irpin.

The grim reality of war quickly became apparent.

“In the first few days it was very difficult to watch, to get used to all these events, to see people running out of their homes,” Amosov recalls. “Not everyone could walk, some people had parents they couldn’t leave behind who were very old and couldn’t move properly.

“People run … take their children, put their arms around their parents and run, cry, they don’t know what to do. People run with their pets.

“I saw this situation when a soldier ran with a child in his arms. The child’s things were all covered in blood, but the blood wasn’t his, it was his father’s. The mother ran after them. I do not know the end of what happened to the child’s father, but it is very difficult to see.

“The kid was probably two or three years old, but he didn’t even understand what was happening. I didn’t hear him cry, it was probably just an unreal shock.”

The frenetic nature of those early days of the invasion was so hectic that Amosov and his friends – who he says had never owned guns before – received only brief training in the use of their weapons, as fighting had already begun in the city had.

Amosov says one of the moments that shaped him the most came a few weeks later, after much of the city was liberated from Russian occupation.

His team had roamed around Irpin to distribute relief supplies and found civilians hiding in basements with limited food and water for nearly a month.

He vividly remembers a man who burst into tears after being handed some bread. “Seeing a person cry just because they’re holding a piece of bread is very painful and very painful to look at,” says Amosov.

Last week, Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushin said in a statement that the bodies of 290 civilians have been recovered in the city since Russian forces left.

Markushin said 185 of the dead have been identified, most of whom are men. The cause of death was given as “shrapnel and gunshot wounds”. At least five of the dead suffered brain injuries and starvation, according to Markushin.

In total, more than eight million people have been displaced within Ukraine, according to the latest report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency.

“They want to defend this country”

In his darkest moments, Amosov admits he didn’t know if he would survive the day to make it to bed each night. What keeps him going, he says, is the “crazy help” and kindness of Ukrainian citizens every day.

Amosov and his group often did not have time to eat until the evening, but were regularly met by the roadside by civilians who had been cooking food and brewing hot drinks for those aiding the Ukrainian war effort.

Even those who had next to nothing tried to give the soldiers something, sometimes just a candy bar.

“I’m proud that we have such people and live in such a wonderful country,” he says.

While Amosov survived the worst of the fighting at Irpin, not everyone he fought alongside was so lucky. After taking a few days to visit his wife and son, Amosov said he returned and found that one of the young men who had joined the Territorial Defense with him had died.

“It’s hard to see when a mother buries her child and his girlfriend who has planned a future with him is also there,” he recalls. “This is our home, our families live here and we want things to go back to how they were. We lived a good life, we were happy with everything.

“When you look at all these people, women, children, when you see these mothers who have their children buried, when you see what is happening to your city, when your city is on fire, you want to help and you want to defend yourself this city, this country.”

Last month, a video of Amosov posting retrieving his Bellator World Championship belt from his mother’s home in Irpin went viral.

In the video, Amosov climbs up a ladder indoors with a plastic bag, which he opens to reveal the belt.

He laughs and says he “got the belt for the second time” and later posted a photo of him holding up the title while surrounded by a group in military uniform.

“It was nice in that moment because the belt was safe and sound,” he says. “It was nice that my mother hid it well and survived, and that day Russian soldiers withdrew from our part of Ukraine, so the mood was better.

“But at the same time I’m standing here now and it’s quiet in our city and it’s all good, but I understand and I know what’s going on in other cities and it’s hard to just laugh with friends, it’s hard to be in to be in a good mood because after being in those situations where there’s bombing and shooting all the time.”

“This is Destruction”

One day during the war, Amosov says his friends drew his attention to one of his fans, a young man who used to practice martial arts but was injured in the hospital.

Amosov began texting the boy and soon agreed to visit him. When he arrived, Amosov was devastated to discover that this young fan, who was just 20 years old, had lost both of his legs in the fighting.

“I don’t understand why people don’t believe what’s going on here, they do [Russia] have a ‘special operation’ underway to save people,” he says, referring to the euphemistic description used by Russian officials to describe the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

“But look at what’s happening with Mariupol, look at all the other cities that we have in Ukraine that were damaged and a lot of civilians died just wanting to live. They didn’t want war, they were happy with everything.

“I don’t understand how you could fight so cruelly, not according to any rules. I get the impression that it’s almost like something inhuman. How can you act like that? How many people were injured? How many died? How many lost theirs Houses? And they’re talking about saving? That’s not saving, that’s destruction.”

When the fighting in Irpin subsided, Amosov said he immediately returned to his mixed martial arts training.

Logan Storley was the fighter brought on to replace Amosov in Friday’s fight against Page and the Ukrainian says he’s dying to get back in the cage and will be excited to see who wins.

“Now [I’m] Recovering my form… I want to come back,” he says. “I want our whole country to return to its former life and I want to defend my belt.”

Amosov admits he doesn’t know when that will be, but he does know what his homeland will be like when the war is finally over.

“For every citizen of Ukraine, it will look like the best country in the world, the most beautiful and popular.”