Ukrainian commander sacked after troops left starving at front
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Photos circulating online show Ukrainian soldiers left at the front since August 2025 without sufficient food or water, triggering national outrage.
PHOTOS: X
- Pictures of "emaciated" Ukrainian soldiers, fighting since August 25 with scarce food and water, caused nationwide outrage and fury.
- Ukraine fired the 14th Mechanised Brigade commander for "concealing the true state of affairs" and miscalculating soldier supplies, per Ukraine's General Staff.
- The new commander pledged to rotate soldiers out and improve supplies, with immediate evacuation planned if conditions permit.
AI generated
KYIV - Ukraine said on April 24 that it had fired the commander of a military unit after pictures emerged of emaciated soldiers left at the front for months without sufficient food or water supplies, triggering nationwide outrage.
A woman, reported to be the wife of a soldier in the unit, published pictures showing three servicemen having lost significant amounts of weight, with their rib cages and collarbones protruding, and sporting thick unshaven beards.
The unit had been in position on the front in the north-eastern Kharkiv region since Aug 25, with supplies arriving “as God wills, roughly every 10 to 15 days with no water or food”, Ms Anastasia Silchuk wrote on social media.
During winter, the men melted snow and drank rainwater, she added.
Ukrainian military journalists and public figures reacted with fury.
“I never thought our military leadership would bring our army to such disgrace. Our infantrymen look like those coming back from Russian captivity,” wrote correspondent Anna Kaliuzhna on social media.
Ukraine’s General Staff on April 24 said it had fired the unit’s commander – the head of the 14th Mechanised Brigade – accusing him of having “concealed the true state of affairs”.
“A number of positions were lost and a series of miscalculations were made regarding the provision of supplies to servicemen. In particular, a problem with food supplies to one of the brigade’s positions was identified,” it said in a post on social media.
The unit is fighting around the Oskil river in the Kupiansk area in north-eastern Ukraine.
Supplies are delivered to troops in that part of the front using drones and boats to cross the waterway, which is being targeted by Russian fire, Ukraine said.
Food had recently been supplied to the unit, the army said on April 24, adding: “Should conditions permit, the immediate evacuation of troops will be carried out.”
The brigade’s new commander, Colonel Taras Maximov, held an online call with the soldiers after his appointment, pledging he would try to rotate them out as soon as the weather made it possible.
“Help by pulling us out, and everything will be fine,” one of the men told him in the call published by Ukrainian media. AFP
