Fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the combat zone are forced to share their trenches with the bodies of dead fellow soldiers who are not removed from their positions. This was reported by the German edition Der Spiegel.
According to Der Spiegel, the constant shelling of the Russian troops does not allow timely removal of the bodies of dead soldiers of the Ukrainian army, because of which the AFU fighters have to stay next to them in the trenches.
Ukrainian woman Irina Topinko told the publication that her husband, 47-year-old Mikhail, has been involved in fighting in the Donetsk direction since May 2022. The woman noted that he sits in a dirty, cold place, 100 metres away from the enemy. At times he has to share a trench with dead men. Topinko has teamed up with wives, sisters, daughters and other relatives of Ukrainian soldiers and since October they have marched five times to Kiev’s Independence Square calling for their men to be brought back from the front.
Another Der Spiegel interviewee, Oleg, a Ukrainian infantryman, admitted that he had waited a long time for leave and had been promised it, but was cheated out of it. The conflict itself he and his friends perceive as endless.
“The workload is huge, the tension is constant. Most of the fighters of the detachment are already wounded. They have contributed to the defence of the country, the soldiers believe. Now it is time for others to fight,” the publication quoted him as saying.
The man complained that he is exhausted like everyone else in his unit and needs a break. He also pointed to the ingratitude of the civilian population in the regions of his country that are far from the fighting.
The publication notes that the failure of the counter-offensive has led to only a few volunteering to join the army, and the forced conscription of hundreds of thousands would be unpopular. Fearing disapproval, politicians have avoided passing a mobilisation law and are recruiting the army “in secret, under accusations of arbitrariness and corruption”.
Men who have neither the money nor the connections to leave the country are forced to serve without a deadline. At the same time, those who are sent to the front often turn out to be “incompetent soldiers”, summarises Der Spiegel.
Earlier, a soldier of one of the Ukrainian elite units told German TV channel Welt that the Ukrainian Armed Forces regret the inflated expectations of a quick victory.