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.
It waswas definitely avoidable but the situation for many soldiers in forward positions is tense at the best of times.
I am no expert on this but I believe the additional funds will not improve the situation for the grunts in the trenches significantly because the issue is not a lack of materials. Instead it’s the ubiquity of cheap kamikaze and spotter drones that makes logistics so difficult because any sizeable movement attracts an immediate response.
I think instead the funds will to a significant portion be spent on purchasing material that are actually in short supply like missile interceptors to bolster defense against Russian air threats beyond drones.
Are the investments for long term drone improvements coming from Ukraine’s budget or NATO procurement?
Right, do you have any sources on that I can check out?
My main source of information on the Ukraine conflict is Perun, an Aussie working in or at least adjacent to the military industrial complex. He has a playlist of presentations (he basically delivers narrated PowerPoint presentations instead of “traditional” videos) on Ukraine.
I see, checked them out a bit. Kind of frustrating that it appears as though this is just someone who has worked in defense contracting and the sources they list are just typically news sites (which indicates to me they don’t have access to or do not use whatever scholarly access they would have if they have a degree related to this). So, they seem like more of a reporter who is aggregating news coverage with some public documentation.
I’m sure their videos can be informative, but I’m more curious about how this is argued and measured as many experts in these fields are pretty incapable of articulating how systemic, material, and social conditions facilitate instances like this and how reflective they are of individuals’ decisions or systemic dysfunction.
Perun approaches the topic from an economical and strategic viewpoint. And yes, he uses mostly open source information because it would be very unwise for his career to use any form of insider information he might possess. Though if you have a look around the channel you can also find some interviews with experts in specific fields. And also yes, if you are more interested in the day-to-day situation on the ground I’d recommend checking out other channels as well. It’s his stated goal to provide a top down view.
Oh, what I was talking about would still be a top down analysis, just one that is more informed and nuanced to create better explanations. Economic and political lenses exclusively tend to be distortive and only useful for people who subscribe to their preexisting explanations for things (and it doesn’t seem like this person is qualified to produce those beyond their individual experiences).
While we could start a whole philosophical debate about whether or not anyone can provide anything but their individual experience of things, I doubt someone unqualified would have been invited as observer to NATO wargames.
We couldn’t, because this is an internet comment thread and you don’t seem to understand how these topics intersect. Also, yes, someone who is invited to some NATO workshop is not likely to be qualified to answer my questions by merit of it being a workshop for experts in the exact thing I am saying is not sufficient to.