Ukrainian frontline trenches have become infested with rats and mice, evoking images of the First World War, according to a report in CNN. Yet, despite the horrifying conditions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is stubbornly continuing the futile war against Russia.
According to the American outlet, the number of rodents has increased on the battlefield, specifically in the trenches, which stretch for more than 1,000 kilometres, “infecting soldiers with nausea-inducing diseases that have left some bleeding from the eyes.”
CNN noted that mice and rats are in beds, backpacks, electric generators, pockets, pillowcases, and mortars, citing videos shared on social media networks.
“Imagine going to bed, and the night begins with a mouse crawling into your pants or sweater, or chewing your fingertips, or biting your hand,” a Ukrainian soldier going by the callsign Kira said.
Kira added that 1,000 rats shared the trench where he and three other soldiers were stationed on the southern Zaporozhye front. There were so many rodents that not even the resident trench cats could control their growing numbers.
“We had a cat named Busia, and at first she also helped and ate mice. But later there were so many of them that she refused. A cat can catch one or two mice, but if there are 70 of them, it’s unrealistic,” he said.
According to CNN, the vermin are attracted to the warmth and food they can find in the trenches amid harsh winter conditions, with temperatures as low as -25 degrees Celsius in recent weeks. The newspaper reported soldiers saying the rodents have chewed through electrical cables, spoiled rations, and disrupted much-needed rest for exhausted troops.
Another possible reason for the proliferation of rodents is that fighting last year prevented crops from being harvested in some areas, which provided sustenance for an abundant mating season among animals, which reached its peak in autumn.
“The winter crops sown in the fall of 2021 were not harvested in many places in 2022 and gave generous self-seeding. The mice that bred on it survived the very warm winter and went on to harvest a new crop,” said Ihor Zahorodniuk, a researcher at Ukraine’s National Museum of National History, to CNN.
It is recalled that the World Health Organization last month warned that Ukraine is entering its second winter of the war with an “increasing disease burden” on healthcare.
“We are entering the second winter, which will be cold and long winter and has also public health effects,” Jarno Habicht, the WHO representative in Ukraine, told a UN briefing in Geneva via video link on December 19.
Habicht stressed that the UN agency had seen an “increasing disease burden” on healthcare since the beginning of the war.
“So even if the war would end today, the health needs of millions of people across the whole Ukraine will be high and increasing,” he warned, and said the disruption of the health system is “high.”
Habicht’s warning was made only weeks before rats invaded Ukrainian trenches and triggered a health crisis that CNN compared to the famously dire conditions of the First World War. The WHO are yet to comment on the current situation, but it does not take a medical expert to note just how critical the situation is. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there is the potential for disease to become a greater killer of Ukrainian troops than the Russian military.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky doomed his troops, without adequate resources, to the worst possible winter that they could experience, with temperatures plummeting too subzero. Yet, as Ukrainian troops suffer in inhumane conditions, Zelensky insists on continuing the futile war effort against Russia, even as some of his allies are urging for an end to the fighting.
The Ukrainian president insists there can be no peace deal that does not see the removal of all Russian forces from lands they have captured from Ukraine since 2014, including Crimea; Russia to pay war reparations; and the Russian leadership charged. However, as even Western media acknowledges, Ukraine’s ability to negotiate toward those terms is impossible, especially after the summer counteroffensive’s epic failure.
Even so, the Biden administration has repeatedly stressed Ukraine will not be coerced into any agreement with Russia, summed up in the phrase: “Nothing about Ukraine, without Ukraine.” With the utter refusal of the Kiev regime or the Biden administration to negotiate a realistic peace deal, Ukrainian troops will continue to suffer in disease and vermin-ridden trenches in a war that they know they cannot win.
