Ukrainians continue living in fear of death

As the Israeli military visits death and destruction on Gaza, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia enters its third year with a significant loss of focus by the international community.

My Ukrainian friend sends me regular emails every week, updates and news not shown on mainstream media. Living in Kyiv, she says there’s a false sense of normality as people do their best to live as normal a life as possible.

But for the communities living in front-line cities and villages, the horrors of war are a daily event.

Volunteers risk their lives to fight for Ukraine

Volunteers from around the world have taken up arms to defend Ukraine against Russian attacks.

My friend describes a common front-line community experience:

You do the usual things, wash the dishes, cook dinner, talk on the phone and a minute later, you have already lost everything, your house is destroyed, everything is on fire. And you are either dead or wounded or recovering from shock, if you were not personally affected.

The rocket flies for a couple of minutes and no one has time to hide anywhere. Even the alarm goes off after arrival.

An hour ago, an ordinary Saturday evening, people at home minding their own business. Suddenly, an alarm air raid siren in six regions. Everyone froze, waiting for where and at whom the rocket would land. This time two missiles flew to the city of Kremenchug. You can see the consequences in the media. Next time, the rocket will fly to a different place.

Every day, there is heavy and frequent bombing of civilians in front-line settlements. There are dead, there are wounded, there are destroyed houses. Ballistic shelling of large cities — Kharkov, Dnieper.

While we live one day at a time, we don’t make plans. At any moment, a drone or missile may appear and all plans disrupt.

That is how we live.

What do we feel?

A lot of things. The range of emotions and thoughts is indescribable. Too many different emotions, thoughts, feelings.

How does a patient with a terminal diagnosis feel?

It’s great that you don’t understand how people live in war. Really.

It’s better to never experience or know this. Never.

But we have no choice. We live one day at a time, we don’t make plans. At any moment, a drone or missile may appear and all plans disrupt.

Russia's attack on Ukraine leaving catastrophic toll on environment

Aside from the devastating loss of human life, the attack on Ukraine by Russian forces has resulted in a massive environmental catastrophe.

As if the ongoing missile strikes in residential neighbourhoods and communities aren’t bad enough, Ukrainian soldiers are living in World War 1 conditions in freezing trenches coping with invasions of rats, mice, disease and terrible privations.

CNN reports rats and mice have infested the trenches, spreading diseases that cause soldiers to vomit and bleed from the eyes.

Sleep is limited to two to three hours depending on how lucky you are. In one dugout where four soldiers lived, there were about 1,000 mice. Cats have been brought to the trenches but they cannot catch enough mice to change the situation.

In December, there was an outbreak of mouse fever in many Russian units in the occupied territories. Symptoms include a rash, low blood pressure, bleeding in the eyes, vomiting, and because it affects the kidneys, severe back pain and problems urinating.

Ukrainian journalist Violetta Kirtoka describes the situation in the trenches, dugouts and being on duty in the front lines:

I have seen many times how kilograms of mud drag on soldiers’ breeches, how they rejoice at warm knitted socks that can be worn at night, how the respected unit commander asked for hygienic lipstick, because in the Donbas cold and wind, lips crack instantly.

The commander of one infantry unit, who has been at war since 2014, says:

“On frosty days, you need to regularly warm up the equipment, warm the batteries. The most difficult thing is to fix cars, turn nuts... There’s nowhere to hide — and you have to do it in any weather.

In the cold weather, the wearing of uniforms changes over time — it is optimal for the duty officers to change every two hours. That is how long a fighter remains attentive in the cold, does not lose vigilance, does not start to doze. Three hours — there is already a risk that he will miss something. And he will freeze.

If your feet are constantly in water, you don't dry your shoes, your shoes are warm and then cold due to temperature changes, especially at night, the effect of a steamed foot occurs and a layer of skin peels off. And it happens, no matter what you do. Every second person in my unit has this, because we move in wet conditions. We tried to put bags on the shoes to keep less moisture in, but then the feet get steamy.

Children's cream and powder help feet. It dries the skin. We carry spare insoles on our bodies. But we carry a change of socks and shoes with us. If you are wet, nothing will save you, only dry clothes.

When we go to the left bank (of Donetsk), we take a minimum of water with us. After the flood, everything in those places is covered with sand. Houses in the middle in the sand. The legs fail, it is difficult to walk. During this movement, water leaves the body very quickly, dehydration happens rapidly.

When you walk along that left bank, basically all in water, you might fall into a ravine — a mine flew, the place is flooded with water. Sometimes you jump out of the boat as quickly as possible, because there is shelling and you are in the water.

Sometimes, the whole group of us would lie on top of each other at night to keep warm. In those Krynks (villages), all the houses are broken. Not everyone has basements. And where they are, it is very cold inside. Don't set fire to anything. For us, sleep is also death. If one falls asleep, everyone falls asleep. The work of the body slows down. But you also need to sleep to do work. Believe it or not, the boys slept standing up.

In winter, there are problems with warm clothes at the checkpoints. The wounded are brought there — wet, dirty. Their clothes are cut off and they remain virtually naked.”

My friend writes:

Will we die, either quickly during missile attacks or slowly, during the Russian occupation? Living under the Russian order is the same as death. I know that for sure. I lived in the USSR.

So far I don't see any other options.