Ukraine’s defence ministry has fired a top commander after photos emerged of a group of emaciated soldiers who have been left on the frontline for months without proper food and water.
The scandal erupted after the wife of one of the soldiers, Anastasiia Silchuk, posted the images on social media. The four men appeared to be pale and visibly malnourished, with prominent ribcages and thin arms.
The soldiers had spent eight months defending a shrinking bulge of territory on the left bank of the Oskil River, near the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, their relatives said. Supplies of food and medicines could only be flown in by drone.
“When the lads arrived at the frontlines, they weighed over 80–90kg. But now they weigh around 50kg,” Silchuk posted. After one delivery, she said, no more food turned up for 10 days. The soldiers were forced to drink rainwater and melt snow to survive.
“The longest they went without food was 17 days. They weren’t listened to on the radio, or perhaps no one wanted to listen to them. My husband shouted and begged, saying there was no food and water,” she said, adding that the problem was bigger than just one case.
The Ukrainian side has generally more realistic information because their side is able to be fact checked by the rest of the world for a lot of it.
The Russian side is significantly more heavily controlled from a media perspective.
Most accurate information typically comes from independent analysts pouring over all the data and coming up with a “this is the most realistic guess”
From what I read, Russia is gaining ground so slowly it would take decades just to take over the areas they claimed, with extremely heavy losses. Both sides can’t achieve a strategic push because of the drone hellscape in the vast grey zone.
And it’s unclear on both sides how long they can sustain the political will to fight.
So barring some new development, it’s a stalemate that eats 40000 people per month.
Is that about right?
It is a stalemate that Russia could end in days by withdrawing from Ukrainian territory. Ukraine can only end it by dissolving or winning.
Saving for “and Russia could get its ass handed to it handily at any point if any nation had the willpower to step in and stand with Ukraine”
In short, yes. I’d say Russia probably has the edge since Ukraine’s manpower issues are much worse, but it’s hard to say.
On the other hand the Ukrainians have started successfully using drones for ground assaults so they might be able to overcome or at least alleviate their manpower shortage that way.