{"id":583664,"date":"2026-04-21T14:01:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/korabelov.info\/2026\/04\/583664\/343-days-without-rotation-on-the-zaporizhzhia-frontline-an-armed-forces-of-ukraine-officer-botanik-stayed-due-to-a-shortage-of-personnel\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T14:01:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:01:57","slug":"343-days-without-rotation-on-the-zaporizhzhia-frontline-an-armed-forces-of-ukraine-officer-botanik-stayed-due-to-a-shortage-of-personnel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/korabelov.info\/en\/2026\/04\/583664\/343-days-without-rotation-on-the-zaporizhzhia-frontline-an-armed-forces-of-ukraine-officer-botanik-stayed-due-to-a-shortage-of-personnel\/","title":{"rendered":"343 days without rotation on the Zaporizhzhia frontline: an Armed Forces of Ukraine officer \"Botanik\" stayed due to a shortage of personnel"},"content":{"rendered":"

37<\/strong>-year-old infantry officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksii, with the callsign \u00abBotanik\u00bb, spent 343<\/strong> days on the frontline in eastern Zaporizhia region \u2014 one of the longest combat deployment periods for Ukrainian servicemen, reports CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kharkiv Karazin National University. His unit in the 3<\/strong>rd mountain-assault battalion is formed mostly from former civilians and reservists who joined the military after the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn my company (as in all others) there are not enough people, and about half are older than 50<\/strong> years. Ideally, an infantryman should spend a month in combat and a month recovering, but right now that is unrealistic\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To maintain the fighters\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

He also spoke separately about his own communication with his family.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI try to talk to my daughter every day. I don\u2019t want my family to see what I see \u2014 explosions, destroyed villages, death. That\u2019s why I\u2019m here\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

After almost a year of continuous service Oleksii received a short leave: he celebrated his daughter\u2019s 10<\/strong>th birthday, taught her to ride a bicycle, and returned to his unit.<\/p>\n

At the same time this is not the absolute record: Senior Lieutenant Ivan Kavun from the 30<\/strong>th mechanized brigade spent 486<\/strong> days on the frontline.<\/p>\n

Previously we wrote:<\/h3>\n