The main problem in the army now and the worst thing in the war
I just want to warn those who want to join the ranks of the Armed Forces: the army is not a story of sprints. This is not a story when you come for a motivational push, join the army, achieve some feat, and then return to your normal life under flags and to the sounds of the national anthem. The army is a story that needs to be dragged on. You have to put up with the fact that you fight more with your shovel than with your weapon; putting up with army bureaucracy, and with the fact that you just get tired. When you understand that the army is a marathon race, that you have to get used to the fact that no one knows how long the war will last, that this is your new way of life – it makes life a lot easier. As the saying goes, life becomes much easier when you realize that it will never get easier.
So the main problem now is to cope with this burnout and fatigue.
How do I deal with this? It should always be remembered that there are units that are much worse off. There are people who have it much worse than I. I can't say that I suffer a lot, and it is much more difficult for many of my brothers. I am also not sure that my prescriptions are universal. Perhaps the only thing worth remembering is that there are always those who are in a worse position.
What is the worst thing about war? When you live a normal life without war, you get used to thinking that you have everything more or less under control. You control the circumstances and quality of your life, what you will do today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and so on. In war, you cannot control any of this. Moreover, in war, even the question of your life is a matter of chance, because no one can exclude friendly fire: the chance of blowing yourself up on a Ukrainian landmine, rather than the enemy's. You cannot calculate the trajectory of fragments from an exploding projectile. You begin to get used to a certain fatalism, to the fact that you are not in control of your own life. And at the same time, this fatalism must not become such an indulgence that you do not stop worrying about your own safety. In fact, maintaining this balance is also probably one of the most important things to remember.
What is most difficult for me personally in army life is probably the completelack of privacy. You are always surrounded by people. You never fall asleep alone, and you never wake up alone. We used to joke that the coronavirus pandemic and isolation would show who was a real introvert and who was just pretending. No, it’s actually army life that really shows this.
Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
