“The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky clearly knows the value of his words.

When offered an escape route by American officials, he stood firm. Refusing to leave his people, he doubled down on the need for logistical aid in his country’s fight for existence. But he did something else too – he demonstrated an intuition for warfare that many professional warfighters struggle to internalize.

In the Marine Corps, we learn phrases like “surfaces and gaps” or “points of friction.” They’re intended to simply how we see action on the battlefield. Hard surfaces are places where the enemy has amassed a resistance. Gaps are weak points. You build strategies around those surfaces and gaps. Your own resources help you identify how to engage them.

Points of friction are something else. They’re the parts of a plan where you need to insert yourself as the leader. They are the parts of your plan where rapid decision making, and quick action, become the difference between victory and defeat.

Many are focusing on the badassery of a phrase like “I need ammunition, not a ride.” But for me, what cements Zelensky’s place in history is the first sentence: “The fight is here.”

Leadership in moments of crisis demands that you confront the point of friction. In the mundane moments of our daily lives, it’s a manager stepping in to work alongside their team on a difficult project instead of waiting to pass judgment on their work. In the extremes of combat, it’s a leader recognizing where the fulcrum point of a conflict is, and putting themselves right there to make the decisions that matter.

These are the moments like Lincoln in the telegraph room dispatching orders in real time. Whether he’s carrying a rifle or not, a leader in these moments reduces confusion by being there and devoting himself to the problem in front of him.

It’s far too early to predict how this war will end. But in this moment, the Ukrainian people are showing a mettle and resolve that will resonate through history. And they’re receiving a level of leadership to match.

Ukrainians like Vitaly Skakun will be remembered for what they’ve done. He’s reported to have manually detonated the mined Henichesky Bridge to blunt the advance of Russian forces. He radioed his team to tell them what he was preparing to do, knowing this would be his final goodbye.

Zelensky knows this is the spirit of his people. He knows they will fight. He knows the fight is here. He doesn’t need to escape. He’ll face the point of friction beside them.