MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th February, 2023) Ukrainian troops have to abandon their positions in some cases due to lack of ammunition or commanders' failure to relieve forces as soldiers want to avoid "senseless death," an unnamed Ukrainian army officer told the Politico newspaper.
"Sometimes abandonment of positions becomes the only way to save personnel from senseless death. If they (the military leadership) cannot deliver ammunition or (relieve troops), when you sit in the trenches for several days without sleep or rest, your combat value goes to zero," the officer, who recently left the fronline near the city of Bakhmut, also known as Artyomovsk, said, as cited in the report.
The officer noted that many discipline problems among soldiers were caused by ineffective command and strain put on the Ukrainian forces battling against a bigger Russian army.
Eugenia Zakrevska, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer, who is now a troop member, said, in turn, that soldiers were rarely leaving their posts, mostly only out of absolute desperation.
For months now, the center of the fighting in the Ukrainian conflict has been the hotly contested Bakhmut, located north of the city of Donetsk. It is an important transport hub for supplying Ukrainian troops stationed in Donbas amid the military operation launched by Russia in Ukraine a year ago.
