343 days on the front line: Ukrainian officer’s long deployment underscores Kyiv’s manpower issues

By Daria Tarasova-Markina, Lauren Kent, CNN (CNN) — Infantry officer Oleksiy just spent 343 days without leaving the front line, in what his battalion believes is one of the longest combat deployments for an officer in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. His lengthy deployment, in the woodlands between settlements in the eastern Zaporizhzhia region, underscores Ukraine’s