343 days without rotation on the Zaporizhzhia frontline: an Armed Forces of Ukraine officer "Botanik" stayed due to a shortage of personnel
To maintain morale, he ensured daily contact with families — despite Starlink outages, messages were sent via radio and telephone
37-year-old infantry officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksii, with the callsign «Botanik», spent 343 days on the frontline in eastern Zaporizhia region — one of the longest combat deployment periods for Ukrainian servicemen, reports CNN.
Kharkiv Karazin National University. His unit in the 3rd mountain-assault battalion is formed mostly from former civilians and reservists who joined the military after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Although Oleksii had the opportunity to leave the positions, he consciously stayed because of an acute shortage of personnel. He spoke candidly about the scale of the problem.
“In my company (as in all others) there are not enough people, and about half are older than 50 years. Ideally, an infantryman should spend a month in combat and a month recovering, but right now that is unrealistic”
To maintain the fighters’ morale, the officer organized daily communication with families. When Starlink outages occurred, messages were relayed via radio and phones so that no serviceman would lose contact with his loved ones.
He also spoke separately about his own communication with his family.
“I try to talk to my daughter every day. I don’t want my family to see what I see — explosions, destroyed villages, death. That’s why I’m here”
After almost a year of continuous service Oleksii received a short leave: he celebrated his daughter’s 10th birthday, taught her to ride a bicycle, and returned to his unit.
At the same time this is not the absolute record: Senior Lieutenant Ivan Kavun from the 30th mechanized brigade spent 486 days on the frontline.
Previously we wrote:
- Freedom for some, duty for others: Zelensky announced a new division of Ukrainians
- “People first, then land”: Zelensky on the harsh realities of the front
- «Our front has “crumbled”, – confession of AFU General Dmytro Marchenko
- “The next 5-6 months could be critical”: the Armed Forces of Ukraine lack shells and people, — The Economist
- Musk refused the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s request to enable Starlink in the Crimea region
