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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
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.
vermin terrorizing vermin . that’s ok with me
afu eaten by rats and cooking them because resnikov stiffed them on rations while ukraine’s officials buy 10 million euro villas in switzerland and throughout europe with stolen western money.
what a shithole of a country.
why was reznikov rewarded with a cushy job in london? because he knows too much. duh.
these people will be hunted for the rest of their lives. if not by the russians then by ukrainians.
here’s a theory: we all know ukraine has lost. zelensky will be a dead man if he capitulated. the west want him to pull the plug so they can blame him but he knows what will happen if he does. biden doesn’t want to be seen to be forcing him to capitulate- its election year. zelensky is waiting on biden or more likely trump pulling the plug 2025. the russians know it will happen so why waste men when they know whats coming.
the operation will continue until the complete demilitarization and denazification of ukraine is achieved. or until the clown signs an unconditional capitulation.
after ww2, it took the soviets until 1955 to smoke out the bandera terrorist’s gangs who supported the germans.
that incorect. they smokes milion people there beciúse they were not comminist.
i know details from polans. even wonen were deported some then 6 month for bad new time. and the nazis were allready dead or has escaped west.
almost the bandera crap is one filthy lie so legalse taken land to belarus in ukraine. benderas were terrable burderes for a short while.
they renvenced against poles,jews and germans, which rejoined west ukraine på trhe new polans. poles also defeded the red army and kept it.
thats why the russains dont like most peopl the the wole relgion. they dont like poles, russian and tjekkislovaks.
the relative many nazis in west ukraine is a result af commununisme and a lack of no progress.
hey shit for brains…..ever hear of volhynia? ask a pole, why don’t you.
and here’s another serious question. do you make up the words you write drunk or on hallucingens?
what a bozo
anybody have any idea what renvenced means?
i tried looking it up in an online dictionary and it came back with a reply:
“don’t bother me with such stupid questions, you bozo’.
ha ha….jens luvs bandera and his fascist brigades.
but the real question is, what you been smokin’, man?
is that the crap they feed you in your schools and tv?
nazi banderites are as thick as flies in ukraine. ever see tyahnybok raise his arm in a nazi salute? ever read parubiy’s book, the ukrainian mein kampf? who were these two? they founded the social national party (nazi party backwards) and later renamed it svoboda because nudelman was too embarrassed to support a party whose name had nazi links so said ‘change it’.
you’re as thick as a pile of bricks.
i’d rather the clown sighs during his decapitation.
typiscal internal russian version do covering ukrain and the rest of the world.
and so funni: russia has election with only one candidate. maybee solomon is there a sponsor. ha ha.
and ukraine has no elections and the us has fake elections.
and the eu has a bunch of unelected bozos running the operation, don’t forget.
us election is a farce for a long time. “biden” was appointed by the house of washington through cheating with the help of big tech as they call. what we are witnessing is a classic dog eat dog scenario. keen eyes already know about “biden” and his doubles (hence the attempt on claiming russia has more putin double by the typical western mainstream media)
the democrats looked for the best dummy that they could find and biden won the nomination by a landslide
i hear budanov makes zelensky wear a suicide belt and he keeps the trigger in his pocket.
zelensky will sail off into the sunset on one of his multi-million dollar yachts to miami or italy while all the minor thieves left in ukraine will face the irate mobs and be hanged in the squares.
solution to the rat and mice problem: the ukro-nazi-heimy-yid-kike-banderitejew fuhrer zelensky orders his peon cannon fodder troops to start eating them. there would be less strain on the ration supply for an already dead broke economy.
it’s just be cannibals eating cannibals.
its terrible. trencline warfare too often is like that.
soime the russian second lines seemes more better then time.
thanks for good laugh! just keep it on imbecile. yur lounguage simila inglish, arh, got yu chanse to laern it beetæar.
man, this guy gets dumber by the day. it’s gotta be drugs.
glue sniffer probably
what’s better than time?
really, what grade did you manage to finish in school. 4th? how many times did you have to repeat it?
we know they teach english in denmark’s schools. all slaves need to learn it.
jens finished 160th out of a class of 150.
let the zio nazi jewscum suffer in the trenches
those ukrops should be really concerned over trench rats. they’re cannibals.
“infecting soldiers with nausea-inducing diseases that have left some bleeding from the eyes”
sounds like crimean-congo haemorrhagic fever
probably nudelman experimenting with bioweapons again.
zelensky can’t negotiate as long as west leaders are still alive. russia should have arrested him earlier 2022, west leaders should not bother so much as it is now.
the only way zelensky can be willing to negotiate is if trump win america next election and keep his promises then zelensky will be forced to negotiate otherwise negotiation will only possible if there’s no man called in zelensky in his office.
western schmucks have to keep feeding ukraine cash because as soon as the country collapses, the ukrainians will storm the us embassy and take hostages and put them on trial, like in iran.
happens every war in europe. environment goes haywire with all the food, supplies and bodies to eat. animals get hyper aggressive like everyone else. zoonotic diseases that were the real killers. typhus probably killed more in the first two world wars than most the weapons systems.
nudelman’s bioweapons lab flunkies are busy taking samples from ukro corpses as we speak.
if the good ukrain “soldier” taken from the streat, will survive, he should take a white flag and be pow in russia in good conditions resting to the war be over. most off them are not against russia. and tell the russian you will stay to the war being over. now that jew/coke lensky shot down the plane whit his comrads.
that’s what ukrops do. they’re quite the bunch of nazi ghouls.
badanov, oh – i mean budanov did it. he’s nazi ghoul no. 1 now.