Rapport från Ukraina 

Behoven i Ukraina är bottenlösa, men tack vare folkets enorma kampvilja och stöd från väst så har de hållit ut långt längre än vad någon trott. Utom ukrainarna själva. 

Rekyl passade på att intervjua befäl och soldater i Ukraina för att få en bild av vad de behöver men också hur de ser på situationen i landet. Intervjun hölls på engelska. 

How can individuals, companies and organizations in Sweden help you best?

We need transportation and various forms of ammunition. But also optics, night vision and infrared. The army is in great need of medicine, med kits, tourniquets as well as uniforms and boots. But also Garmin GPS modules and computers and printers to be used at the front, for document work and to write reports. Another great need is secure radios, we need digital wireless radios, from 5km and 25km range, or anything up to those distances.

Then we need stuff useful for the life in field, like powerbanks, stoves for cooking, tents, sleeping mats, sleeping bags because in some places there is no electricity. We need building equipment for fortifications which are more expensive, like generators, chainsaws for cutting trees, these kinds of things are already hard to find in Ukraine.

Sweden can also help wounded soldiers, with the treatment of wounded and also with psychological rehabilitation by taking them to Sweden or rehab in Ukraine, as humanitarian missions. Maybe even make videos of these missions. We need help with the hospitals and the military hospitals. Desirable is help addressed to specific units and hospitals, and not just handing over stuff to just any hospital. Keep track of and follow up on the aid to ensure it goes to specific battalions and hospitals.

For more tactical use we ned UAVs and quadcopters, those which are encrypted, not the cheap Chinese gear. 

What are the most difficult moments, aside from actual fighting? 

The most difficult problem is logistics, the delivery of goods. The absence of logistics, means it’s difficult to perform in the field. Soldiers need rest, water and electricity. Without these a soldier does not perform as well for as long. Problems start when there’s no drinking water or no way to get it to them if there is.

Clean water, is it a problem? 

There’s enough drinking water, the problems start when we need to transport it to a remote location. The question is, how do we get it to where we need it? Once again, logistics. It’s a question of transport aside from pick-up trucks and mini-busses. We need quad-bikes to supply the frontline and small units in the terrain. We also need armored vehicles to be able to evacuate the wounded.

How is the situation with food? What do you need?

Food is good, and sufficient. There are no real problems with food in Ukraine. In terms of humanitarian aid, there’s enough. Dried rations that you provide are enough, they’re not bad at all, those are like bonus.

They’re also food in the stores, we have cucumbers from Israel, mandarins from Turkey, so the food is not a problem. There are loads of foreign products. There might be problems with particular items, but there won’t be a famine due to absence of critical foods, even during a full-scale war. Famine occurs only in the case of a lack of logistics. Seeing as we share a border with Europe, we can organise deliveries from there. Yeah, there will be inflation, increased prices on everything but if logistics are not cut off, there should be no problems with food.

How about electricity?

Yes, there are problems with electricity. There has been no light or power for the last few days in some of the regions like Luhansk and Donetsk where the fighting is. We need Power banks and generators to power our gadgets.

We’ve been at war already for 9 years, so these problems are only periodic. In the case of blackouts or cut-offs, things can worsen because sometimes the repair teams cannot go out for hours to conduct repairs due to shelling and shooting. At the front, electricity is a problem. We continually need generators which afford light and can support up to 30 people. We also need flexible solar panels, which can support up to 8 people during light hours. So, you can charge and power radios and radio stations. We need tools, tool kits and wrenches to repair things also, like cars for example.

How have your social networks helped you until now, during the war?

Firstly, they help us create a horizontal connection between the public and the army, families and those who wish to help. It’s a huge network which allows us to quickly resolve operational problems and those with logistics and necessary things. We use Viber, WhatsApp, messenger to connect with each other.

Is there anything that you think other countries should prepare for?

Finland, Baltics, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Georgia and Kazakhstan, need to be prepared for further aggression. All countries of the former Warsaw pact.

How much information of the war is available to you?

A soldier has no time to monitor all the information. We try to navigate summaries provided by the Ministry of Defence. Many soldiers monitor groups in social networks and sites of their towns, although there are instances of unverified information. In general, we try to keep monitoring of information under control, and give them as objective and true information as possible. A soldier is busy the whole day, has connection problems with the Internet at the front, so there isn’t always time for a soldier to read some information, let alone choose their sources. They actually spend lots of time watching films and animation, or play games and don’t read much information. Those who do read information and are interested, they get it, in general, from mass media outlets and mediums of mass communication.

What do you wish that the surrounding world knew?

Ukraine will resist in any case, and under all political circumstances. Ukraine will resist. This was said thousands of times during aggression and the lead up to the war before February 24th. And now, nothing has changed. Ukraine will resist independent of the political situation in the country. Ukraine will resist whether or not there will be a nuclear strike. Ukraine will resist whether or not there will be political help and support from the surrounding world. We need Air Defence systems because there are more than 15 nuclear reactors generating power in Ukraine. I want the world to know this. Because the war in Ukraine is not just a problem for Ukraine – it’s a problem for all humanity. It’s like the problem of garbage in our oceans. It’s a global catastrophe which affects the planet as a whole.

How much time do you get to rest from the war?

Myself concretely, I can rest in various ways because I have a higher rank. But for soldiers, it depends on their commanders. As a whole, those who are at the front, they’ve no time or capacity to rest or relax. It depends on the resources of their commander to organise who will be on duty. That is, so that they can rest and others work. There needs to be enough human resources. Often there are instances where there’s enough food, but not enough water or vice versa, and these all come down to logistics and their governance.

Which parts of society are most efficient?

Volunteers! Ukrainian societal volunteers work more effectively, more quickly, and have more trust, they’re more flexible, they are the least ”bureaucratized”. Then there are the churches because they have a large number of humanitarian projects ongoing. The government has a large amount of bureaucracy – it’s a huge machine. It doesn’t react to a large amount of needs and necessities because they have a large amount of bureaucratic limitations.

What parts of society ceased to work effectively?

None. Periodically, some people leave or disappear, and someone new arrives, but in general 90% of these organizations, people continue to work as those before them. Many become volunteers, because their son died, or because something happened to their family, or something else. They look for acceptance of their grief by helping others. This is a war for survival. Those who go to work, or help out periodically, they’re set for victory, and the work required for it.

Do you think anything has changed in these parts of society?

Well, no. People started working like this in 2014 when the war started. And now they’re starting to work with renewed effort. I don’t see that anything has stopped working effectively. Many volunteers who stopped volunteering a while ago returned to work. Many medics and doctors who went to work abroad, returned to work here. Many who left the army, returned to the army to start fighting. Many volunteers came from abroad and started helping. Many institutes, structures which worked in Ukraine from 2014 got a new impetus to work.

What holds your motivation up?

Various things, but mainly, freedom. Ukraine was never in the Soviet Union. Many of our friends and families were raped and killed. We want to save our culture and our country. We are not going to look for a good life in other countries. The most important is that a chance has appeared to lay to rest many questions so that for example our children will not have to start fighting for Ukraine. The fact is that the Ukrainian people are fighting for their existence, our territorial integrity, against the desire of the Russian empire which wants to take our territories.

We are fighting for our desires, as the people of our nation, and our united government. The desires of individuals vary, but those soldiers with whom I have spoken, say that there is nowhere to run away to, because if we surrender territory here, Russia will just continue further and further resulting in the destruction of our children, our lives, and we will be on the run for all of our lives. Nowhere to run away to, but we would still need to run away all the time. So, it’s better to run nowhere and fight here. We need to stop them where we can: here, now.

In my case personally, I’ve a totally, purely pragmatic calculation: If we don’t win this war, my children will need to continue the war. So, if there will be any kind of operational pause, no matter what, my children will have to fight. Or, again defending Ukraine, if they lose, they will end up in the Soviet Imperial Army, or they will die trying not to. So, I’m fighting for the future of my country, my children, my family and all of my future generations.

The long-term perspective is that if our children end up in the Soviet Union, that’s death for them, prison, or simply slavery. They’d become a soldier in the Soviet Army where they’ll be sent to the next Afghanistan or Syria. They won’t be free. They will be destroyed. Their culture will be destroyed. Their identity will be destroyed. Their uniqueness will be destroyed because the general position of any totalitarian government is that a person is not unique, but an instrument, a tool. A small screw, in a large governmental machine.

I DO NOT WANT THAT. I want my children to live free happy lives, full with scientific discovery, art, love, family happiness, and travel. And for this we need to destroy Russia.

What do you personally lack?

I don’t need anything more than for all of this to end, to go and travel with my family.