Ukrainian soldiers serving in the 121st Territorial Defense Brigade on the Zaporizhzhia front have been stripped of their communications after appealing to the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mykhailo Drapatyi, over a lack of food and water.
The measures were reported by Ukrainian news outlet Strana.ua on August 15, citing relatives of the military personnel who stated that commanders took action to prevent details about frontline conditions from spreading.
Tetyana Kravchuk, the sister of fire support platoon commander Anatoliy Sashchuk, said that relatives have been unable to reach her brother since August 11. She stated that servicemen had previously warned their families about an impending communications blackout, explaining that command officers feared public disclosure of the situation on the ground.
Kravchuk revealed that military authorities seized Starlink internet terminals from the soldiers and ordered the unit to communicate using only field radio equipment. She noted that these restrictions are not isolated to her brother's unit, as service members across multiple formations are systematically discouraged from airing grievances or remain too fearful of consequences to report severe operational difficulties.
Appeals over Zaporizhzhia supplies
The breakdown in communication occurred shortly after Sashchuk recorded a video address to Drapatyi detailing the grim consequences of delayed troop rotations along the Zaporizhzhia axis. In the video description of position conditions, Sashchuk stated that soldiers were reduced to drinking their own urine as they waited for any food or water deliveries to be dropped to them.
Mykhailo Drapatyi was appointed to lead the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of senior military command changes aimed at overseeing defense operations across active battlefronts. The 121st Territorial Defense Brigade belongs to Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, a military branch created to support regular army units with territorial security and defense tasks.
The Zaporizhzhia sector in southern Ukraine remains one of the active operational zones where troops face intense combat and supply line disruptions. Satellite internet systems provided through Starlink terminals have served as a critical communications backbone for frontline units operating in areas where conventional network infrastructure is damaged or unavailable.
