Ukrainian soldier reveals systemic issues in the military where soldiers are breaking down faster than enemy forces.
Crisis in Infantry
It’s not just the fighting that destroys people. Despite all discussions about the technicalization of modern warfare, problems have been growing in the army for years. Today, they are beginning to break people on the front faster than the enemy.
Mass cases of desertion in the army have not appeared because soldiers suddenly became cowards or stopped being patriots. The reason is that people in units on the front have simply reached their physical and mental limits.
The scenario is always the same. Units are not withdrawn for rest. The time spent in positions extends inhumanely. Meals either don’t arrive or are not prepared for what they face. After I was wounded and evacuated in winter 2023, only five comrades remained from my platoon, which originally had 30 people. The others were already wounded or killed.
Price for Lack of Rotation
Human endurance has its limits. If rotations were regular, people would change positions more often, and service conditions would be at least somewhat more humane, we wouldn’t have the situation currently prevailing on the front. We often demand soldiers to be heroes but forget to give them the opportunity to be simply soldiers – trained, equipped with everything necessary, and at least somewhat rested.
The widespread use of drones has significantly complicated rotations on the front line. Approaching the forwardmost positions and withdrawing from them through the “death zone,” which now extends kilometers behind the front line, must be developed as a separate special operation with detailed route planning, tracking enemy drones, and coordination with electronic warfare units. However, under favorable weather conditions, rotations are possible and necessary for survival.
If an infantry soldier spends an average of 60 days in their position (according to media reports, the current record for time on the front line is 472 days, over a year and three months!), it’s difficult to talk about effectively carrying out tasks. The combat stress there is so enormous that it destroys a person from within.
Uneven Burden of War
Yes, the war has indeed become a fight fought at much greater distances. Drones now largely take on the tasks of combating the enemy and constant monitoring of the battlefield. This is enormous technological progress.
There are drone units that closely cooperate with infantry. Ultimately, however, everything comes down to the fact that the defense line is not maintained through technology, reports, or casualty statistics. It is maintained by specific people in trenches. From how long they can stay there and maintain combat capability directly depends the future of the country. And such people are really lacking.
I’m not an expert in critical infrastructure or in assessing military service capability. But when the number of men discharged from service has already exceeded a million, and in the deep countryside one sees groups of draft-age urban workers building a small bridge for many days, one cannot escape the impression that something is wrong with the fair distribution of people.
Illusion of Negotiations
In this context, news about peace talks sounds completely different for soldiers than for civilians. Among the military I speak with, few see in them a realistic perspective for Ukraine. News about a possible ceasefire creates only an illusion that has little to do with what is happening on the battlefield.
For those far from the front, news about meetings of negotiators may create the impression that some peace process has already begun; as if a resolution to the conflict is closer than yesterday. There emerges a sense of a turning point – approaching peace or at least a ceasefire. However, for those directly in the combat zone, nothing changes: artillery still fires, attacks continue, drones fly, people die.
I really would like to be wrong. I would like to return to my family as soon as possible. However, the current reality is that this fight will last for a long time.