Ukrainians are rushing to weave camouflage nets for their soldiers whose demand grows with the arrival of new equipment at the front that has to be hidden from the threat of drones and enemy artillery.
Although the attacks of “human waves” of the Russian infantry on Bakhmut make headlines around the world, this war is still an artillery war. Both sides search for ground targets using thousands of drones. However, Russia continues to enjoy the upper hand here, firing three times as many shells per day as Ukraine.
Tanks and vehicles, air defense systems and canoes, all must be hidden from the enemy’s view, so that their destruction and loss of life is less likely, explains Solomia Rybotytska, a volunteer, to Efe.
Every detail matters when a well-made camouflage net is all that protects a soldier from detection and bombardment.
“A good quality net has to be strong, light in weight and blend in well with the environment,” explains Solomia at one of the more than 15 volunteer centers in Lviv that have so far produced some 1,000 camouflage nets.
“More military equipment is coming, our army is getting bigger. Lviv, Kharkov, Odessa, Kiev, all our cities are producing networks, but we need more and more,” he adds. He shows a long list of requests from about 10 units of the Ukrainian army which involves a 3 month job, with at least one 9×6 meter net woven every day. Experience gained through trial and error as well as feedback from soldiers have helped establish a smooth running manufacturing process.
“We use Ukrainian-made fishing nets as the base for each camouflage net. Volunteers then weave green, yellow or brown strips through the cells of the net to create a cover while being careful to avoid any recognizable patterns,” he explains. Solomia as her hands move quickly over the net.
Manual labor cannot be replaced by automated production because it is extremely important to avoid patterns, which enemy drones can easily spot among natural vegetation.
On average, several dozen people show up every day. Some come only occasionally to knit for a couple of hours after work while others have been coming almost daily for over a year, like Nadia, a Lviv resident, and Nina, who moved here from Kharkov…
Nadia shows a photo of a 26-year-old soldier who was killed in action in early April. His sister, a professor at the university, often comes here to weave nets. “It may seem that the war is far from us here in Lviv. But we keep losing our brothers, our sons, our best fighters, and we want to help protect them,” stresses Solomia.
Nina has her nephew fighting in the army and smiles as she continues to rapidly knit, when asked what he tells her about the war.
“He always says that everything is going to be fine because that’s the way it has to be, there’s no other way,” he replies. By helping soldiers hide from danger, camouflage netting supports them psychologically by relieving the stress of having their lives in constant flux. risk.
In turn, their gratitude inspires the volunteers to work harder, says Solomia, as she proudly displays the letters her team received from various Ukrainian army units.
“This letter from Druzhkivka, in the Donetsk region, reminds me that our guys are going through hell there. If I feel tired, it is enough for me to think about what our soldiers are experiencing at any moment in the trenches, and I am ready to get back to work,” she says. Any show of support from abroad is greatly appreciated as volunteers tell several stories of foreigners coming specifically to help them build networks.
“One of them came from Germany and stayed here for two weeks. Asked about his motivation, he said that his mother had taught him to do good to others,” Solomia recalls.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
