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Ukrainian soldiers in one of the frontline trenches in the Kharkiv region are already experiencing the second winter of war. All summer they tried to fortify and improve the conditions for waiting out the frosty days less than a kilometer from the enemy positions.
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“I wish we could take a warm shower at home.” Ukrainians wait in frozen trenches | Video: Reuters
According to her, pedestrians are trying to keep their spirits high despite the heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. “Somehow we got used to it. All positions, observation and defense posts have ovens, and volunteers send us trench candles so that we don’t leave trails of smoke,” Oleh, a member of the 61st Mechanized Brigade’s infantry battalion, described in a Reuters report.
The soldiers, who live in a concrete command post equipped with refrigerators and ovens, are used to subzero temperatures. “We have good clothes, everything is fine, we just have to fight,” said another Ukrainian soldier named Oleksandr. His comrade Artem dreams of a warm shower in the windy trenches. “I wish we could shower in our summer houses and not wait for it to work,” Artem adds in disgust as he looks at the barrel that is supposed to be a makeshift shower but apparently isn’t working because of the frost.
Ukraine has been resisting full-scale Russian aggression for almost two years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted earlier this year that the level of “mobilization of Ukrainian society and the world” seen at the start of the war no longer exists today.
“That has to change,” he said, adding that the draft age must be lowered from the current 27 and exemptions that allow people to avoid military service must be limited. As unpopular as this measure is, Zelensky said, there is no alternative to it.
Ukrainian soldiers are struggling with exhaustion as the war has dragged on into its second winter. (11/22/2023)
Ukrainian soldiers struggle with exhaustion as the war enters its second winter Video: Reuters
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