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Ukraine Frontline Report (4th)

2023.12.23 (Sat) Hitoshi Takayo Follow Following A woman I met in the town of Furiapole, Zaporizhzhya region, just 6 kilometers from the front line (photographed by the author)

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(Hitoshi Takayo: Journalist)

The Ukraine war has no end in sight. In late October, I visited the front lines in Ukraine, where fierce fighting continues, to report on the situation.

Circumstances where you can’t evacuate even if you want to

One of the things that surprised me while reporting on the front lines was the reality that many people still live in dangerous areas where they don’t know when shells will fall.

Zaporozhye Oblast, southern Ukraine. There is a town called Friapole, located 6 kilometers from the front line where fierce battles with the Russian army continue. The streets are lined with apartment buildings whose steel frames are exposed, as if they were directly hit by shells, and shops whose doors and windows were blown off by the blast. Half of the buildings in the town were destroyed by Russian artillery bombardment, leaving piles of rubble everywhere.

A housing complex in Furiapore was damaged by shelling. You never know when the ground floor will be hit by a shell (Photo by the author)

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It was raining cold that day. A figure could be seen on the streets of the town, where the sound of shelling continued. She was a woman in her 60s, wearing a raincoat and carrying luggage on a bicycle.

“As a pensioner, I can’t afford to evacuate elsewhere,” said a woman who was passing by on a bicycle. In the background is the Friapole Cultural Center, reduced to rubble. Cultural and educational facilities are also targets of the Russian military (photographed by the author)

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Surprised that there are people in such a ruined town, he asks why they remain in the town instead of evacuating. She says, “With only a small pension, she cannot evacuate.”

The pension is just under 20,000 yen per month. If you evacuate, you will receive public support, but it is said to be about 23,000 yen per adult for the first three months, and only about 8,000 yen from the fourth month onwards. They say that they cannot live in the evacuation site.

I learned that “self-responsibility” is the basis for responding to war. Even if a shell hits your home, you won’t be compensated because war is an insurance exclusion.

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2023-12-22 21:00:00

Ukraine frontline report (3rd edition)

2023.12.19 (Tue) Hitoshi Takayo Follow Following Reconnaissance drone “Leleka100”. A camera is mounted on the head (photographed by the author)

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(Hitoshi Takayo: Journalist)

What is happening on the front lines where the Ukrainian army confronts the Russian army? In late October, just before winter, I visited Ukraine’s Eastern and Southern Fronts, where fierce fighting continues, to report on the situation.

>> Photos of drone operations by the 28th Independent Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army

[Part 1]The morale of Ukrainian soldiers infiltrating the battlefield, covering the shortage of weapons and ammunition as seen by a Japanese reporter
[Part 2]Remains of defeated Russian tanks are “reused” to make bombs, and the seriousness of Ukraine’s ammunition shortage

The cause of the stalled offensive is the lack of air power.

In June, Ukraine launched a full-scale counteroffensive against Russian forces. However, even after half a year, there has been no significant movement on the front, and the situation remains at a stalemate.

Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zarzhny wrote in the November 1 issue of the British magazine The Economist that the war is shifting to a “positional form” similar to that of World War I. He showed a sense of crisis. This is because prolonging the war would give Russia an advantage due to its superior national power.

Commander Zarzhini cited the enemy’s overwhelming “air superiority” as a key factor in this situation. When Russia invaded, “Ukraine’s military entered the war with 120 tactical aircraft, of which only 40 were technically suitable for use, and 33 medium- and short-range anti-aircraft missile battalions were completely destroyed. “Only 18 had usable equipment,” he said, pointing out the dire state of air power and emphasizing the need to overcome the situation.

When I asked soldiers in the Ukrainian ground forces that I visited what their biggest challenge was, the answer was “lack of air power.” Soldiers are forced to fight a difficult battle without air superiority on the front lines.

Ukraine has been strongly requesting the West for fighter jets and other equipment since the Russian invasion, but it was only at the Hiroshima Summit in May that President Biden finally announced the provision of F-16 fighter jets. In order to use the F16 in actual combat, a period of pilot training was required, so it was not ready in time for the reversal offensive that began in June. The West missed the timing to hand over powerful weapons to Ukraine for fear of provoking Russia, which is having an impact on the course of the counteroffensive.

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2023-12-18 21:00:00