On fear and panic – Alexander Sarovic in Der Spiegel:

‘Going into battle in a tank is frightening, something that Sasha, 55, is quick to admit. "For the enemy, we are always the first target," the tank commander says. Misha, the 25-year-old gunner, says that he has always been lucky so far. "Two of my tanks have been destroyed since the beginning of the war, but I’m still alive." There are even soldiers who try to get out of it, says the 22-year-old loader, who goes by the nom de guerre "Hudzik." Sometimes, he says, soldiers will even invent a problem with their tank.
None of the three Ukrainian soldiers hold it against those who refuse to fight. Misha knows that his luck, too, could turn. "If they hit the turret, you’re just a pile of ashes," he says. "It’s better to refuse to go into battle than to chicken out in the middle of the fight," Hudzik says. Fear, says Sasha, isn’t the problem. That begins to fade once the first shot is fired. Panic though – that must be avoided at all costs.’

(…)

‘In this early phase of the attack, Sasha, Misha and Hudzik have made a crucial contribution, providing cover to Ukrainian infantrymen as they storm the Russian trenches. Their tanks are parked in front of the house beneath pear trees and camouflage netting. And they are among the most effective weapons that the German military has been able to contribute to the Ukrainian war effort thus far: two Leopard 2A6 battle tanks.
They are mobile, camouflage fortresses. Projectiles from Russian rocket-propelled grenade launchers bounce off like small rocks, say the eight soldiers who go into battle with the two Leopards. Misha, the gunner, fires at his targets out of the five-meter-long gun, relying on lasers to help him aim. The cockpit is full of controls labeled in German. Sasha is the crew chief in the other tank, where the loader Hudzik also serves, lifting the shells – each weighing more than 20 kilograms – out of a small ammunition stowage area and preparing them to be fired. Each tank also has a driver, called a "mechanic" by the crews.’

(…)

‘Still, the soldiers are satisfied. "Already, we’ve advanced to within 600 meters of our objective," says Sasha. "That’s a good result." Misha reports that the night-vision capabilities of the Leopards makes it easy for him to see the Russians. He uses fragmentation munitions. "I just aim at a tree and pieces of shrapnel fly everywhere. And down below in the trench, everyone’s dead," he says.’

(…)

‘For the Ukrainian trainees, the five weeks in Germany were a rare respite from the fighting. One evening, says Misha, he went with a translator to a club not far from Munster. It was the first time he had been out for almost a year and a half. "I stayed all night. It wouldn’t have been worth it for just a couple of hours," he says. Loud music, techno and trance: Perfect for forgetting.’

(…)

‘Sasha, Hudzik and most of the others in the two tank crews, meanwhile, are from Kryvyi Rih, the steel and factory city that is also the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As is usually the case in wars, many of the Ukrainian soldiers at the front are those who work with their hands during peacetime: factory workers, day laborers, farmers. Sasha, who was stationed in East Germany in the late 1980s as a Soviet soldier, has worked for decades in brick and steel factories.’

(…)

‘While the Leopard crew tries to decipher the German terms in the video, the Azov fighters talk about the chaos they experienced during their last battle, about a friendly fire incident among Ukrainian troops. Moreover, they say, the Russians supposedly managed to capture two tanks. Saying they are scheduled to head back out again that night, they grab two cans of Redbull and take off.’

(…)

‘It is a strange purgatory where the soldiers exist, one in which two thoughts are unwelcome: the thought of death in battle, and the thought of life far away from the frontlines. Both just serve to distract them.’

Read the article here.

Catch-22 is still a good novel to read. And war is war, trenches are the trenches. World War I was bloodier, but the gains and losses are counted in yards and miles. The wounded and the dead soldiers are kept out of the news cycle.

Yes, deciphering German is hard, but perhaps the NATO can send some language instructors to the front. In Iraq and Afghanistan, we had the interpreters, mainly Afghans and Iraqis for a US passport. Maybe some Ukrainians with good command of German can be offered a German passport if they work six months as language instructor with a tank crew on the front.

They should be told: fear is normal, panic can be deadly.

Also, in case we forgot, war is class warfare. I don't use this word lightly, but it is what it is. Just find out who is dying.