The Economist today notes, among other things:
I t’s mud season again in Ukraine. “Spring and autumn are the most difficult periods for warfare,” says reservist Colonel Oleh Zhdanov, a former operations officer on the Ukrainian general staff. “The main problem is the rain.” Farm tracks leading to the front lines are churned into slippery swamps, armoured vehicles founder, soldiers slip and fall and sometimes break bones. “As the temperature drops, the fighting slows down,” says Colonel Zhdanov. “When roads are impassable, the war usually becomes more positional.”
“The rain feels like needles on every part of your body; you are pouring water out of your boots,” says Andriy, a Ukrainian unit commander in the province of Luhansk. His poncho is his most treasured piece of kit. “I love it, I could write a book about it.” By day, it keeps the rain off; at night he stretches it into a canopy above his foxhole. Other soldierly essentials are a water-resistant sleeping bag, good thermal underwear (“I didn’t change my clothes for two weeks; I smell really bad”), and sanitary towels, which soldiers use as insoles to keep the damp out of their boots.
Staying warm and dry is a matter of luck, says Andriy. Sometimes, digging in, he hits dry earth a metre below the surface; other times he has to spend the night with subterranean streams trickling into his sleeping bag. In the morning you can tell the unlucky ones, because they are almost comically covered in mud.
Every season has its advantages and disadvantages. Andriy, the unit commander, notes that mud can even be helpful: “In autumn your weapon is so obviously dirty that you clean it every day.” It will get colder soon enough; freezing conditions make it harder for bacteria to thrive and easier for vehicles to manoeuvre. Says Colonel Zhdanov, “I always say that the one who prepares the targets better and equips the soldier better will have the advantage when the winter comes. When a soldier is in warm clothes, he will fight in the cold; when the ground is dry and hard he will feel comfortable. And then there will be a tendency to intensify hostilities.”