Nicolas Tonev, edited by Romain Rouillard
modified to
11:51 a.m., November 05, 2022
For the past few days, the mercury has been dropping seriously in Ukraine with temperatures that can drop to -5 degrees at night. What make the combat conditions even more difficult on both sides of the front line. Handling weapons or concealing one’s equipment immediately becomes more difficult.
Up to -5 degrees at night, just over 8 degrees during the day, rain mixed with snow, winter is settling in Ukraine. A boon for the armies of Vladimir Putin who have embarked in recent days on a strategic enterprise to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Enough to plunge millions of civilians – more than 4 million according to Volodymyr Zelensky – into the cold and darkness.
And on the front, winter also changes the rules of combat by making them even more drastic. From t-shirts to parkas, from bare hands to gloved hands and from resting in the open air to needing to warm up in a shelter, everything is becoming more difficult for soldiers and Ukrainians.
Under the layers of heavy clothing, the bulletproof vest immediately becomes more cumbersome. It is also more difficult to handle weapons, reload them and fire. Moving quickly can also be utopian and it is now very difficult to hide or hide the equipment from the view of drones. Since the trees have lost their leaves, the soldiers no longer benefit from the forest cover and therefore become more vulnerable.
Greater logistics
The fighters must protect themselves from the deadly eyes coming from the sky in what remains of the villages and thus indirectly give a position. Logistics also become more important, as the cold means carrying more fuel and more equipment for the men.
This is, moreover, the only area in which the drop in temperature can possibly become a help since the hardened ground facilitates the movement of vehicles. Especially since both Ukrainians and Russians are experts in transforming frozen rivers and lakes into terrestrial communication channels.