Intense fighting, lack of resources leave wounded soldiers on their own
2024.04.12
It can take a day or even two for soldiers to get in
and out of the fiercest fighting spots – killing any
hopes of medics coming to save the wounded.
Left alone at the positions, the soldiers often have
to pull out their comrades on their own under heavy
shelling, sometimes walking five to seven kilometers
to the nearest evacuation points, where vehicles
take them to makeshift hospitals.
When soldiers carry their wounded out, the group is
easy to spot – and it immediately becomes easy prey
to Russian first-person view (FPV) drones and artillery.
The front-line units say they face a severe shortage of
basic equipment such as the U.S.-made M113 armored
personnel carriers and even Soviet-era BMP infantry vehicles.
Dozens of servicemen from three battalions who spoke
to the Kyiv Independent stressed that the deficit is so
critical that in their units, which number 300 to 600
infantrymen, they only have one M113 and BMP each–
jeopardizing evacuation.
Afraid to lose armored vehicles, commanders sometimes
have to prioritize the equipment over the wounded,
ordering soldiers not to drive up closer to reduce the risk
of a direct hit, the interviewees say. But time is crucial to
saving a life or a limb.
Multiple company and platoon commanders across
the front line said they have also suffered heavy losses
due to the higher command's decisions to send men
to defend the positions for "as long as they can," in
places where withdrawal and evacuation weren't possible.
The defense and fall of Avdiivka is a recent example.
The situation gradually worsened in the small industrial
city just outside of occupied Donetsk, forcing Ukraine
to withdraw in mid-February.
Western experts and many Ukrainian soldiers interviewed
by the Kyiv Independent said the evacuation would not
have been as chaotic if the decision had been made a few
weeks earlier.
Vitalii, 46, who goes by the call sign King, served as a medic
in the 42nd Separate Mechanized Brigade when it was
deployed on the northeastern Kreminna axis front in June 2023.
The unit was inexperienced and the casualties were catastrophic,
he said. It put enormous pressure on the medics, most of whom
had some training but no real experience in medicine.
Ukraine's Medical Forces confirmed that "there is a need for
qualified medical personnel" in the military.
https://kyivindependent.com/unequipped-and-outgunned-ukrainian-military-often-cant-evacuate-its-wounded/
작성일 : 24-04-21 10:38
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