25 Apr 2026
Ukraine has fired a top commander after pictures emerged of starving soldiers forced to drink rainwater and melt snow to survive on the frontline against Russia.
One of the soldiers’ wives, Anastasiia Silchuk, posted the images on social media – they showed four men who appeared to be pale and malnourished, with prominent ribcages and thin arms.
Relatives said the soldiers had spent eight months defending territory on the left bank of the Oskil River, near Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Kupiansk, where food and medicine could only be flown in by drone.
‘When the lads arrived at the frontlines, they weighed over 80–90kg. But now they weigh around 50kg,’ Ms Silchuk said in a post.
During a ten-day gap between deliveries, she said the soldiers were forced to drink rainwater and melt snow to survive.
‘The longest they went without food was 17 days. They weren’t listened to on the radio, or perhaps no one wanted to listen to them. My husband shouted and begged, saying there was no food and water,’ she said, adding that this was not an isolated issue.
Another relative, Ivanna Poberezhnyuk, said soldiers were ‘losing consciousness from hunger’ – her father was evacuated from the position but others were still stuck there.
Ukraine’s general staff said it had replaced the commander responsible for feeding the soldiers.
The brigade said there were logistical problems and deliveries were only possible by air because the soldiers were stationed close to enemy lines.
A spokesperson said: ‘Everything is done by drones. The Russians pay maximum attention to the deliveries of food, ammunition and fuel. They intercept and shoot down as much as possible. Sometimes they are not so interested in our military equipment as in logistics, actually.’
Because of the Russian threat near the frontline, Ukraine has been using more unmanned ground robots to send supplies into exposed areas and to evacuate wounded soldiers.
Russia has destroyed bridges near the Oskil River to attempt to cut off Ukrainian forces on the left bank.
Ms Silchuk said on Friday conditions have improved since the images emerged.
She said the new commander had phoned and said the situation would be resolved.
‘My husband wrote to me that he’s just eaten more than he has in the last eight months,’ she added.
‘The lads are eating little by little at the moment. Their stomachs have shrunk, and they don’t know whether they will have food tomorrow or not. I believe this situation needed to be publicised. There needs to be a rotation; the boys require medical treatment.’
Ukraine’s military command said it would investigate.
‘It should be noted that recently another shipment of food was delivered to the position of the 14th Infantry brigade. If favourable conditions exist, an immediate evacuation of our soldiers will be carried out,’ it added.
Outrageous.
And very, very sad.
It takes a hell of a long time to recover from such an ordeal.
God willing, actions will take place to ensure that no such horror occurs again.
Of course putinaZi scum will try to destroy the defenders’ food supplies; they are degenerate savages after all.
I hope a plan can be formulated to prevent this happening.
Fighting men and women need two or three times the calories of civilians, plus plenty of fresh water, which is heavy.
Hopefully frontline troops have access to portable purification systems for this purpose?
I hope also that self-heating MRE’s can be made available for the defenders.
As far as I am aware, they don’t have them and can run the risk of giving away their positions by cooking their rations.
Disgusting. Such commanders must be demoted and send to those same positions and exposed to the same situation they created for others.
Demoted, relieved? Give me a break. There’s needs to be a stronger response.