This article is written with the knowledge and understanding that the quality of food and medical aid arriving in front line positions for various brigades is highly variable, having travelled with and also listened to a lot of soldiers and other personnel working in front line positions and understanding the wide variation in what the have and what they need. The two obvious donations that the Ukrainian Armed Forces need (apart from weapons and ammunition, which is not really in the private sector’s capacity to donate or import in any numbers, because the requisite licences are held only by foreign governments) are food and medical supplies. I want to talk about food first, because the situation is somewhat simpler although the problem in both cases is the same, namely that the receipt of aid items is massively variable and there is no consistency in what is delivered or where. In each Brigade the quantity of receipts is entirely different and that is because there is no central organisation of the delivery of aid amongst NGO’s and everything depends on personal relationships. It is therefore an inefficient system that could benefit from economies of scale: it involves endless small runs from places where aid may be made, stored or donated on an individual basis over huge distances, consuming vast quantities of gasoline as cars are driven long distances across the length of Ukraine, often from Lviv to the front line, to deliver small quantities of aid and to return again.
I want to emphasise that some brigades receive nothing in the way of food or medical aid and others receive too much, more than their needs. Again this is inefficient and unfair and an inherent consequence of how NGO’s work without coordination with one-another or with the Armed Forces senior officers. Contacts tend to be relatively low-level within the military structure and therefore it is difficult to assess who really needs the aid.
I will start with food. For the most part, it is untrue to say that there is no food for the military on the front line. There is food. It is provided by an army of old ladies who sprout up in military kitchens each morning and ungodly hours and who seem to produce essentially the same sorts of staple all across the front line: mashed potatoes, porridge and boiled chicken. This is then delivered to a series of delivery points along the front line early each morning: at least, that seems to be the most common practice, so that soldiers get breakfast and lunch but not so much in the way of dinner. However I have heard of practices in which these food staples get delivered around lunchtime so that there is lunch and dinner but no breakfast. Also there are shops selling food close to the front line: too close for comfort in many cases; I have visited such shops recently hit by artillery or missiles, and then just fixed up with plywood or corrugated aluminium and they keep on trading. So soldiers, who do generally receive their pay on time (at least so I have been told - there are some delays in the International Legion where pay is withheld because there is a fear of desertion), can go daily or near-daily, to shops to buy food that supplements their rations. Those shops often include hot food such as coffee and hotdogs, soft drinks, sandwiches and the like; some of them are really quite decently stocked.
Hence the delivery of food aid to the military must be assessed in this context. Eating is one of the few pleasures soldiers enjoy and the daily rations, while sustaining, are something from which it is welcome for there to a tasty relief from time to time. Hence things like bottles of chilli, cheese or tomato sauce, that make food tastier, are always welcome. Any pieces of meat are definitely welcome along the front line. A number of places provide dried food packets to which hot water is added and these are nutritious and filling but their distribution is haphazard: some brigades get them, some don’t and there is no rhyme or reason to that procedure. They are appreciated much nothing is appreciated as much as fresh food prepared on the front line and there is relatively little of that aside from a handful of restaurants of a kind that are often extremely full.
Therefore the message to those contemplating food aid is: there is food on the front line; think how you can prepare fresh food on the front line; think how you can assess which brigades are in receipt of food needs and which are not and therefore to target the relief appropriately. Ask yourself whether the money you are spending might be better just given to individual soldiers so that they can buy the food they find tasty - if you can find a practical and equitable way to achieve that. Remember: there is no shortage of food at the front line, and in the city of Kramatorsk, which sits adjacent to the front line, there is an abundance of supermarkets selling the full range of food supplies. Consider whether your best efforts are spent in supplying food unless you can actually go to the front line and deliver it yourself, and you have the language capacity and connections to communicate with a specific Brigade commander.
As to medical supplies, the situation is rather different. Some brigades’ stabilisation points, combat medics and individual soldiers have and carry appropriate medical equipment. Many do not. Many soldiers do not even have IFAKs. IFAKs and other elementary medical equipment can be purchased in Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia; there are plenty of stores there that carry both military and medical equipment. However the more sophisticated equipment may not be available at all; I was recently asked to source IV tubing and I could not find it in Ukraine; in the end I had to bring it in from Poland. A lot of donated medical supplies find themselves in the wrong place; equipment appropriate for hospitals ends up on stabilisation points. A lot of IFAKs are self-assembled by amateurs and there are several different standards for what go into IFAKs; in an ideal world each person would assemble their own IFAK in accordance with their preferences, but the world is far from ideal. If you want to donate medical supplies, you might not go far wrong if you follow the guidance at this link about what a typical American combat medic carries.
In truth, every conceivable type of medication is required at a stabilisation point because you don’t know what conditions your patient might be suffering from as well as the wounds he has suffered on the battlefield. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have an average age of 46, far older than a typical army and therefore the likelihood of a patient having auxiliary conditions that must be treated at a stabilisation point in addition to the wounds are significant. The main additional problems are sexually transmitted infections and psychiatric disorders, that are prevalent throughout the Ukrainian Armed Forces due to the inundation of prostitution and the heavy toll upon the mind that extended stretches of service on the front line are likely to take. Medication for underlying conditions is generally not available at stabilisation points and there is a dire need for it. Some stabilisation points are well equipped; others have nothing at all. Before you start donating medical supplies, ensure that you have a contact at a stabilisation point that you can speak to and who knows what supplies are needed.
Because I frequently travel to the East I have often been given bags - often work very large sums of money - full of medical supplies together with a request that I get it to the soldiers that need it. This is an extremely difficult task because I do not know what is needed at each stabilisation point and I am also acutely aware of the fact that these things are bought and sold. It is hard to give an IFAK to a random soldier you meet because IFAKs have a market price near the front line and the soldier may just choose to sell it, particularly if he is not engaged in duties on the Zero Line. Hence I have had to use my discretion in providing these donations onwards to others who know more than I do about what is needed and where. I now have a network of contacts working to deliver medical supplies that I know and I can coordinate with them but I am aware that it is a significant task to ensure even distribution of appropriate medical supplies to stabilisation points. This is something that ought to be undertaken by governments in a command economy style and it is less efficient if it is done through the NGO distribution network but in the absence of government action, NGO’s are the principal vehicles through which these supplies are undertaken and we have to work with what we have.
Inevitably there is wastage. Profits are made. Not everything makes it to the front line. Some things end up in market stalls in Lviv or Kyiv, and there is little we can do about that. Likewise soldiers or their commanders may buy or sell these supplies where they see a market for them, and there are markets between soldiers and civilians even on the Zero Line where everything has a price. Nevertheless donate or contribute intelligently, so that it is more likely that your contribution will make a difference and ensure that you know which Brigade your contribution is going to be received by and ensure you have an understanding of what they need. Well-connected brigades receive more than they need; others virtually nothing. Bear this in mind in the distribution decisions you make if you are a decision-maker in any aspect of the NGO donation process, including being a donor. Take the utmost care in who you donate to and ensure that they know how to make the right things get to the right people. That is always the key.