Military experts compared conditions on the front line to World War I and warned that the dirt, damp, cold and rats keeping awake could have a major impact on soldiers’ morale and performance in battle.
The peculiarity of the winter military campaign in Ukraine is dirt, rats and cold. The mud season, as The Wall Street Journal calls it, in Ukraine begins around October and lasts until the end of winter – and greatly influences the course of the conflict. Mud and cold stopped all but tracked vehicles from moving and made foot attacks difficult, preventing either side from making major breakthroughs.
Parallels with World War I
As The Wall Street Journal notes, the situation on the front line is now reminiscent of World War I: trench systems, fortified defense lines and constant artillery fire.
But besides this, there is another problem – trench rats. As The Wall Street Journal wrote, when the artillery stops on the front lines, other sounds emerge – the squeal and scurry of mice and rats. Mice get everywhere – in beds, clothes, food supplies.
One of the artillerymen, with the call sign Pathfinder, told The Wall Street Journal that, waking up at night from an itch, he saw a large rat on his chest, crawling through his beard. He showed reporters the big holes in his clothes, eaten by rats. According to Ukrainian soldiers, rats and mice eat the corpses of dead Russian soldiers left in no-man’s land.
Moral
According to the WSJ, the morale of the gunners seems high – they joke and laugh out loud when a guest loses his shoe in the mud. However, former American and British officials in conversations with the publication noted that dirt, humidity and cold will definitely have a serious impact on the actions of Ukrainian soldiers in battle.
“The effects of living, walking and sleeping in such an environment can have a real debilitating effect on soldiers and even lead to illness,” said retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of US Army Europe, in the WSJ. As the publication recalls, even during the First World War, experts came to the conclusion that trench rats negatively affected the morale of soldiers, because they did not allow them to get enough sleep.
Russian troops, as The Wall Street Journal notes, are in similar conditions – on social networks you can find many videos about rat infestations in Russian trenches.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.