KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine's Defence Ministry ordered an investigation and the commanding officer of a front-line brigade was fired in late April after photographs and pleas from four emaciated soldiers stranded on the eastern bank of the Oskil River circulated online. The ministry said on April 28 that insufficient food supply to the brigade and two other nearby military units must not become systemic.

The soldiers were holed up on the eastern bank of the river in the southeastern Donetsk region after Russian bombs destroyed bridges connecting them to their brigade on the opposite bank. The group had spent up to 17 days without food deliveries and months without rotation on the front line.

Anastasia Silchuk, the wife of one of the stranded soldiers, described the conditions the men endured while cut off from resupply. "Fighters faint because of starvation, they drink rainwater," Silchuk said.

She said her husband had tried repeatedly to alert his brigade by radio. "They weren't listened to on the radio, or perhaps no one wanted to listen to them. My husband shouted and begged, saying there was no food and water," she said.

The difficulty of resupplying front-line positions has grown as both sides have expanded the use of drones along the contact line. Robotised carts equipped with video cameras can deliver ammunition and food to front-line outposts and evacuate wounded soldiers, but they require guidance from light reconnaissance drones. Heavier drones, mostly bombers capable of dropping several kilograms of cargo and then flying away, are often the only lifeline for front-line supplies.