Starving on the front lines: Food supply in crisis as Ukraine fights Russia

"Pleas and photos of four emaciated soldiers roiled Ukraine in late April. The group had reportedly been starving on the front line after up to 17 days without food deliveries and months without rotation. Fighters faint because of starvation, they drink rainwater, Anastasia Silchuk, whose husband serves in the 14th Mechanised Brigade, said on social media on April 22."

"The fighters were holed up on the left, eastern bank of the Oskil River in the southeastern Donetsk region after Russian bombs destroyed the bridges connecting them to their brigade on the right bank. 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, Silchuk wrote."

"While holed up in an isolated, scrupulously hidden bunker on the treeless, open front lines of southeastern Ukraine earlier this year, Oleksandr missed his family, home and the life he had before Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion. But what he missed the most was real food. You dream of a hot meal, because what you get for weeks is chocolate bars, oatmeal and a bottle of water a day, the serviceman recovering from a leg wound in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera."

"Quantum leaps in the evolution of military drones hovering 24/7 above the kill zone that now extends up to 25km (15.5 miles) from both sides of the front line have made interconnected, walkable trenches or supply vehicles nearly obsolete. The technological and tactical breakthroughs turn p"

Four emaciated Ukrainian soldiers reported starving on the front line after up to 17 days without food deliveries and months without rotation. They were trapped on the left, eastern bank of the Oskil River in southeastern Donetsk after Russian bombs destroyed bridges that connected them to their brigade on the right bank. Radio contact failed or went unheard, and pleas for food and water were ignored. Soldiers described fainting from hunger, drinking rainwater, and surviving on limited rations such as chocolate bars and oatmeal with about a bottle of water per day. One soldier described missing real meals and family life while recovering from a leg wound. Drone-driven changes in warfare have reduced the usefulness of walkable trenches and supply vehicles.

Read at www.aljazeera.com