Frontline sex, lost bodies in Sumy

'the enemy now holds superiority not only in numbers, but also in technology'

The Russian army took 200 square kilometers of territory in the past week. That’s more than was taken in the entire month of April.

When realities on the ground are changing that rapidly, the whims of the white house mean little. It increasingly seems that both Russia and Ukraine take American ‘diplomacy’ equally seriously.

I am therefore relieved to release another post about the frontlines. A few days ago, we took a look at Russia’s rapidly developing drone technologies. Today, our topics are more wide-ranging:

—Frontline sex, and a creative form of fundraising pioneered by the 79th brigade

—Soldiers and mothers complain of missing men in the Sumy region - worse, the abandonment of their bodies by indifferent Ukrainian command

—A closer look at evolving Russian tactics - first drone recon, then Ukrainian positions are bombed to bits, then drones sweep up anything still moving, and finally, small Russian infantry groups enter what remains of Ukrainian fortifications. Long gone are the myths of ‘Russian human waves’. Now, it is Ukrainian troops complaining of their technological inferiority.

—Ukrainian drone operator complaints - from corruption in drone procurement, to higher command’s preference to see drone operators die than for their $500 drone to be lost.

— Time for tactics - one influential brigade calls for ‘successful Wehrmacht tactics’ from the great year of 1942

— Spineless Europeans - Ukrainian militarists complain about their impotent western allies

— Motor-narcotics- Ukraine apes Russia by setting up its own dedicated motorcycle unit. I go into some interesting commentary on how exactly motorcycles are deployed at war

The fibre-optic drone-laden fields of the Donbass. Posted May 31 by a Ukrainian military telegram

Frontline sex

Due to manpower deficiencies, Ukrainian troops are forced to spend upwards of 200 days in the hellish trenches, where taking a shit makes soldiers into an easy target for an explosive drone hurtling about at 300 kilometers per hour.

If one survives to be replaced by a rotation, there isn’t much to do in the small mining towns of the Donbass. Of course, as long as soldiers have existed, they’ve frequented the services of a more ancient profession.

This was described in detail by an interesting telegram I’ve found recently - that run by the 79th Separate Air Assault Tavriia Brigade. Their directness is refreshing.

Here’s a May 23 post from them on this form of frontline relaxation, seemingly involving an unpaid volunteer:

🍓🤌 Sex on the Front Lines

🔥 Yeah, guys, it happens.
Not every damn day, of course, but it happens.

Once, we had this moment. We’d just pulled back from a counterattack near Bohatyr to regroup—mentally and physically. They put us in some half-destroyed house where a psychological support team was working. You know, girls from the rear who aren’t just there to bake pies but also… well, you get it.

There was this one girl. Maybe twenty. Or older—who knows? She didn’t look like a schoolkid anymore. She said:

"I know how to help. Not just with coffee or words."

And damn, after a week in a dugout sleeping in shifts, eating canned shit, and listening to mortar screams, she just hugged us. First one guy, then another. And yeah—it was real. No romance, no flowers, no dates. Just bodies. Warmth. A fucking person.

Some people say:

This is rock bottom.
This is degrading.
This isn’t who we are.

But I’ll tell you this:
When you fight for your life every day, when you watch your brothers get torn in half, when another guy hasn’t gotten a text from his mom in months—you start cherishing shit you used to take for granted.

Yeah, it’s dirty.
Yeah, it’s painful.
But sometimes you just need to be touched.
To remember you’re still human.
Not a rifle that shoots and dies.

#wartalk

I don’t mean to exoticize or mock anyone involved in this story. But such stories feel realer than the content put out by patriotic media of selfless heroes and victorious missions. Instead of forever war, soldiers yearn for human touch.

The 79th returned to the topic on May 30. No doubt disabled troops angered by the lack of government support can rest easy with such discounts:

🔥 Brothers, I don’t know about you, but honestly, my soul feels a little lighter.

Turns out, in Mykolaiv, prostitutes are giving huge discounts to veterans and to those who managed to get out of the trenches for a couple of days.
They even take in disabled guys — and not out of pity, but with understanding. No unnecessary words. No questions.
Discounts up to 50%.

However, the 79th seems to use sexual desire for its own purposes as well. This post from February 12 is pinned:

#girls_of_79

⚡️⚡️ Due to insufficient fundraising, one of our soldiers, Asya Kostenko (call sign "Tear"), an FPV drone operator, started selling her photos.

💸 And through this, significant funds were raised.

🔥 Putting aside moral conventions, she pushed past her own boundaries and prioritized the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

🔥 This is a true case where beauty meets battlefield prowess.

❤️ Asya’s record includes numerous destroyed Russian trenches and self-funded drones. 🫡

The least revealing photo attached to the above post

Lost bodies in Sumy

The 79th alternates such content with darker announcements.

On May 31, they reposted this cry for help from the mother of a ‘missing in action’ soldier from their unit:

Military Unit A0224 79 AAF [Air Assault Forces - EIU] = | | | WHERE IS MY HUSBAND? | | | Return him to me! How could you take him and transfer him to the infantry without proper training? You managed that quickly! | | | RETURN MY BELOVED AND DEAR PRSON| | | You have children and wives—you must understand, even for a moment, imagine WHAT it’s like to live and NOT KNOW WHERE THEY ARE OR WHAT’S HAPPENING TO THEM | | | RETURN HIM | | | I BEG YOU, RETURN HIM | | | . Karpovych Dmytro Ihorovych, in February 2025, was TAKEN by YOU and transferred from Military Unit A1267 to your so-called "elite" Military Unit A0224 79 AAF, to the 2nd Battalion and 5th Company, and went missing within 12 days | | | During these days, after his first mission, he suffered a concussion and was hospitalized for 6 days. The doctor discharged him with a mandatory bed rest for 2 more weeks and a pile of medications, but how many days did you give him to recover? 3 days? I have all the documents proving he should not have been deployed—physical exertion was forbidden for him, yet you took him on a mission where he went missing within 2 days. YOU KNOW WHERE MY HUSBAND IS, but you remain silent because it’s a "gray zone, already occupied." Where is your evacuation? Why aren’t you retrieving the 300 [wounded - EIU]? And then you write...