‘Some share trenches with the dead’ – an article about front line issues was published in Spiegel

“Some Share Trenches with the Dead,” read the headline of an article in Spiegel magazine about the situation on the front line.

The publication reports that the Armed Forces of Ukraine lack personnel, and the soldiers currently fighting are tired of combat and the harsh conditions of service.

The wife of one of the fighters, who has been stationed near Bakhmut for over a year, said that her husband Mikhail “sits in a dirty, cold position, less than 100 meters from the enemy.”

“Sometimes he shares the trench with the dead because the shelling is so intense that no one can remove the bodies. Once he went to the positions and there was no contact with him for ten days,” said Irina Topinko, a resident of the Zhytomyr region.

Military officials say that mobilization needs to be intensified. The publication writes that it is currently taking place “not according to clear criteria developed in public discourse, but secretly, with accusations of arbitrariness and corruption.”

“Anyone who doesn’t have money, connections, or simply doesn’t act quickly enough can become a victim of increasingly brutal recruitment methods. Government representatives catch men on the street or at work and drag them to gatherings,” the article says.

However, those who end up on the front line in this way often turn out to be incompetent soldiers.

“There are alcoholics among the recruits,” says one of the commanders of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleg. “They couldn’t even dig trenches, and sometimes the military police would detain them for drunkenness,” the article states.

Therefore, there are “fewer and fewer soldiers” on the front line.

“Soldiers report that out of nearly 100 people in their platoon, only 20 can still fight. There is a shortage of people in all units,” say sources in Spiegel.