War

1521st day. “The fighters are losing consciousness from hunger.” The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fired the commander of the 14th brigade after the military spoke about a critical shortage of supplies on the front line

Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Share with us your thoughts about the war. What feelings are you experiencing? How does war affect your life and your attitude towards the world? If you have a story related to the war, tell it . The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .

Ukraine

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the dismissal of the commander of the 14th separate mechanized brigade and the commander of the 10th Army Corps after posts from relatives of military personnel talking about a lack of supplies at their positions went viral on social networks.

A few days ago, the wife of one of the soldiers, Anastasia Silchuk, published a post on Facebook in which she said that the soldiers were on the front line in the Kharkov direction without regular supplies of food and water for several months. She published photographs of very thin military personnel and made their appeal public.

We voluntarily stood up to defend Ukraine on the first day of a full-scale invasion. We ask the high command to look into this situation and prevent treacherous actions. Each parcel is for 7-14 days. We get water ourselves - rain water, in winter we melt snow. If it was dumped, then 1.4-2.5 liters. There are often situations when there is no communication at all for 3-4 days. This is the situation in all our positions. Even critical medications are delivered only with food.

Soon the same photos were posted on Threads by the daughter of a former military man, Ivanna Poberezhnyuk. “The guys are in positions without food or water! The command does not react. The soldiers pass out from hunger and drink rainwater. There are also problems with communication,” she wrote.

Poberezhnyuk’s post was reposted three thousand times, and representatives of the Ministry of Defense came to comment on it - they said that they “drew attention” to this situation. The brigade's press service later admitted that there was indeed a food problem. It was explained by the difficulties of delivering goods to the front line: due to constant shelling, the press service said, food and water can only be delivered using drones.

After the story was widely circulated in the media, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces responded to it. They also reported that logistics in the area are difficult due to systematic attacks by the Russian military on crossings, but they also acknowledged “miscalculations on the part of the leadership.”

The General Staff blamed the brigade command, saying that it kept silent about supply problems. The department announced that the commander of the 14th brigade and the commander of the 10th corps had been fired, and a special commission was already completing an internal investigation.

“It should be noted that recently another cargo of food was delivered to the position of servicemen of the 14th Mechanized Infantry Brigade. If favorable conditions exist, the immediate evacuation of our soldiers will be carried out,” the General Staff emphasized.

At the same time, Ukrayinska Pravda’s source in the department reported that the dismissal of the commanders was not directly related to the publication of photographs on social networks and occurred several days before: it was a consequence of general shortcomings in their work. However, the publication draws attention to the fact that this was officially announced only after the story of the military who lost weight from hunger received publicity in the media.

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War through the eyes of Meduza readers

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Meduza's readers live in different countries and have different attitudes towards the war. We publish your letters to see this event through your eyes. Our editors try to present all points of view, even if they do not coincide with the editorial position. However, in accordance with the Meduza code, we do not publish messages that contain “hate speech,” justify the murder of civilians, or express direct support for an aggressive war.

Ksenia (Kharkov) . I just read that a grandmother and granddaughter in Syzran were killed by a Ukrainian drone . I’m from Kharkov, bombs rained down on my parents’ heads for four years, and they didn’t want to leave. My father's heart stopped from stress.

Recently, the whole family of my friend from occupied Melitopol, his sick old parents and brother, died from the Russian KAB.

I hate war. Please write that I am crying for this woman and child from Russia today, like any normal person on any part of the planet.

People, please stop hating and killing each other!

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