Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic content.

A 14-year-old boy lies in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, severely burned from an Israeli airstrike. Doctors say nearly his entire body is affected. His wounds have now become infested with maggots.

When the boy’s dressings are changed, maggots fall to the floor. This happens every time, Dr. Mughani said.

There’s nowhere else for the boy to go. According to the United Nations, an estimated 12,000 patients are waiting to leave Gaza to receive urgently needed medical care, but medical evacuations have been suspended since the closure of the Rafah crossing with Egypt four months ago.

This case is a testament to the deteriorating sanitary conditions for the Palestinians trapped in the besieged enclave after 11 months of war, both within and outside hospitals.

Even as the campaign to vaccinate Gaza’s children for polio continues, the United Nations and aid agencies warn of deteriorating public health conditions.

On Sunday, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN body in charge of the Palestinian territories, said on X: “While we vaccinate children against polio, many other diseases continue spreading in Gaza.”

“Piles of trash grow higher next to tents & shelters. Sewage keeps flooding the streets. Access to hygiene products is increasingly limited. Sanitary conditions are inhumane,” UNRWA said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned last week that limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities, coupled with the lack of affordable hygiene items, was aggravating Gaza’s public health crisis.

In July, the price of soap had reportedly increased by nearly 1,200% across the strip from a year earlier, with the price of shampoo almost 500% higher in the same period, OCHA said.

“Humanitarian partners have been working to ensure that hundreds of thousands of hygiene kits can reach people in need, but those efforts continue to be hampered by active conflict, access restrictions, the lack of public order and safety, and evacuation orders issued by Israeli authorities,” OCHA said.

Families who have been displaced face extreme difficulties in maintaining basic hygiene in overcrowded shelters and displacement sites, the agency said, while critical facilities, such as health centers, community kitchens, child-protection spaces, nutrition centers, and schools, lack the necessary tools to ensure safe and sanitary conditions. This situation is likely to deteriorate further during the winter.

Selling homemade soap

Some residents have taken to making soap and detergents, and selling them.

“There is no alternative. There is nothing that can be brought in. There is nothing ready-made. Everything is closed,” Al-Taweel said.

But he was worried that the raw materials may also run out in the coming days.

“The ready-made product was cheap and available, but everything is expensive… People complain.”

“The shampoo is 15 shekels ($4). We used to sell it for 10 shekels.”

But she said they were often poor quality and very expensive.

“We have epidemics and a high (rate of) infections, parasites and fungal infections in children. There is no hygiene,”  Shahoura said.

UN agencies and partners are attempting to restore wells that were damaged due to fighting in Deir Al-Balah in late August, which reduced groundwater production by 75%. Eight wells were significantly damaged, four of which cannot be repaired at present, OCHA said.

As of this month, daily clean water production in the enclave was at a quarter of pre-war supply, OCHA said, citing agencies involved in public health in Gaza.

The volume of water transported through trucking operations however doubled between 19 August and 1 September. Even so, it is far less than can be generated from wells – and delivery has been hampered by fuel shortages and persistent traffic congestion in the AlMawasi area, where thousands of internally displaced have moved.

Saeed Rayyan, a Gaza resident, sells chlorine to sterilize tents and clothes.

Supplies of liquid chlorine were hard to come by, he said, so they often had to resort to powdered chlorine and caustic soda to try to preserve hygiene.

“There are no alternative materials to eliminate diseases. There is no shampoo,” Rayyan added. People used dishwashing liquid and laundry detergent to try to stay clean.

“Due to the spread of epidemics and diseases and the lack of cleanliness in the tents, as well as the large accumulation of garbage in the country, there is no cleaning…  of the bathrooms and there is no (hygiene) supervision in the markets in general,” he said.

A man wanted for allegedly throwing scalding coffee on a baby in an unprovoked attack at a park in the northern Australian state of Queensland is now the subject of an international manhunt.

Queensland Police Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said Monday that officers were working with international partners to find the man, identified as a 33-year-old foreign national, who is known to have fled the country four days after the alleged attack.

A nine-month-old boy, known only as Luka, suffered serious burns on his face, arms and legs when the man allegedly threw the piping hot drink on him as he sat with his mother on the grass at Hanlon Park in Brisbane on August 27.

Closed circuit television video released by police shows the man running from the scene, wearing a blue plaid shirt, black hat and glasses.

Dalton said early investigations were delayed by false information about the man’s name and the suspect’s own surveillance of the police operation.

“It soon became apparent to us that this person was aware of police methodologies, was certainly conducting counter surveillance activities, which made the investigation quite complex,” Dalton told reporters.

After the attack, the man took a cab to Brisbane’s city center, then drove by car across the state border to New South Wales before flying from Sydney Airport on August 31.

“It wasn’t until the first of September that we were able to put a name to the face in the CCTV,” said Dalton, who declined to name the man or his destination for fear of hampering the investigation.

Dalton said police had identified the man shortly after he fled, telling reporters: “I was in the investigation center when we put a name to the face, and it was a very happy room, only for us to do a check in 15 minutes and find out we lost him.”

Dalton described the man as an “itinerant worker” who had come and gone from Australia on various visas since 2019 and had last entered the country in January 2022.

Police have been unable to determine the man’s motive.

“I’m continually scratching my head. We can’t find a motive,” Dalton said. “A rational, normal person, you would think, wouldn’t do something like that. But that’s not always the case.”

The boy’s mother, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, told local media at the time it was “all very quick and chaotic.”

“I didn’t really understand what had happened at the time, but I just started screaming for help and yelling out that it was hot and that my son was burnt,” said the mother.

Onlookers rushed over with water to douse the child before he was taken to hospital, where he has since reportedly undergone multiple surgeries for severe burns to his chin, neck, chest and back.

At the time, police released CCTV video of the man with a request for people who recognized him to come forward.

“The footage is quite clear. I’m very confident that if you’re looking at that footage and you know that person in there, you’re going to know who it is,” Dalton told media on August 28.

The investigation took police to New South Wales and Victoria, where the man had lived at several addresses on various work and holiday visas.

Police said they’d spoken to his colleagues about his movements.

Pope Francis arrived in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor on Monday for the penultimate stop on a marathon trip through Asia and the South Pacific for the 87-year-old leader.

But clerical sexual abuse is also hanging over this leg of the pope’s visit to the region as revelations of abuse concerning high profile East Timor clergy emerging in recent years.

East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, is one of the world’s youngest countries and has deep ties to the Catholic Church, which was influential in its tumultuous and bloody fight for independence from Indonesia.

The country of just 1.3 million people is the second most Catholic country in the world, with 97% of the population identifying as Catholic – the highest share outside of the Vatican.

The government of East Timor allocated $12 million for Francis’ first visit to the deeply devout country, which has been criticized as an exorbitant burden given it remains a small economy and one of Asia’s poorest nations.

The pontiff’s visit also puts fresh scrutiny on the scourge of sexual abuse in the church and on whether Francis will directly address the issue while he’s in East Timor, as he has done in other countries.

Two years ago, the Vatican acknowledged that it had secretly disciplined East Timor bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Ximenes Belo, after he was accused of sexually abusing boys in his home nation decades before.

In past trips abroad, Francis has met with victims of abuse. Though not on the official program of his visit, some analysts have said if Pope Francis addresses the abuse while in East Timor, it would send a strong message to survivors and those who have not come forward both in the country and around the region.

A regional bastion of Catholicism

Pope Francis’ 12-day visit to Asia includes Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore – underscoring a significant shift inside the Catholic Church as it pivots to Asia.

He is the second pope to visit East Timor, after Pope John Paul II in 1989, but it’s the first papal visit for the country since it gained independence in 2002. The visit comes less than a week after the country marked the 25th anniversary of its vote to secede from Indonesia.

Located between northwestern Australia and Indonesia, the country occupies half of the island of Timor and was used by the Portuguese since the 17th century as a trading post for sandalwood.

Four hundred years of ensuing Portuguese colonial rule led to the widespread spread of Catholicism in East Timor and other cultural differences from Muslim-majority Indonesia.

Today, East Timor’s economy is heavily reliant on its oil and gas reserves, and still contends with high levels of poverty following decades of conflict.

Like other countries in the region, East Timor is in the middle of the United States and China’s push for influence in Asia, with US ally Australia at the forefront in providing assistance.

East Timor is also on track to become the 11th member of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN, which could happen next year.

Bishop Belo and sex abuse allegations

A leading pro-democracy figure during the Indonesian occupation was Bishop Belo, the former head of the Catholic Church in East Timor, who won the Nobel Peace Prize alongside President Jose Ramos-Horta in 1996 for their work in bringing a peaceful end to the conflict.

In 2022, the Vatican confirmed that it had sanctioned Belo two years prior, following allegations from two men who said the bishop raped them when they were teenagers and gave them money to buy their silence.

The Vatican said that Belo — who is understood to be based in Portugal — had been placed under travel restrictions, “prohibition of voluntary contact with minors, of interviews and contacts with Timor Leste.”

While the allegations against Belo date back to the 1980, the Vatican said it first became involved in the case in 2019.

Dutch newspaper, De Groene Amsterdammer, broke the news and said its investigation found that other boys were also allegedly victims of Belo’s abuse dating back to the 1980s.

Belo has never been officially charged in East Timor and has never spoken publicly about the accusations.

In a separate case, in 2021, a court in East Timor sentenced defrocked American priest Richard Daschbach to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing young, vulnerable girls in his care.

Daschbach, a missionary who ran a shelter for orphaned children in a remote part of the country, admitted to sexually abusing girls in 2018. The Vatican expelled him from the church following his confession.

It was the first time that allegations of sexual abuse committed by a priest had gone to trial in East Timor.

Many abuse victims in East Timor have been reluctant to come forward due to the church’s deep connection to the independence struggle, and because of the government’s treatment of the few who have been convicted.

Since Pope Francis became the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in 2013, multiple reports detailing decades of sexual abuse, systemic failures and cover-ups across multiple countries have been released.

While he was criticized for some of his actions – such as when he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up a sex scandal in 2018, a decision he later described as a “grave error” – he has since taken a firm stance on the issues and introduced some reforms, including provisions for holding lay leaders of Vatican-approved associations accountable for cover-ups of sexual abuse.

The church and East Timor’s independence struggle

Amid civil war, East Timor was annexed by Indonesia in 1976 and declared the country’s 27th province following Portugal’s democratization and its decision to shed its colonies the year before.

Between 1975 and 1999, more than 200,000 people – about a quarter of the population – were killed in fighting and massacres or died as a result of famine as Indonesia’s occupying forces tried to brutally assert control.

Indonesia was condemned by the international community for its crackdown, including in 1991 when its troops massacred young independence supporters at the Santa Cruz cemetery in East Timor’s capital Dili. The capture and jailing of Timorese guerilla leader and now Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao the following year further fanned a resurgence in opposition to Indonesian rule.

It was Indonesian President Suharto’s fall from power in 1998 and an ensuing shift in policy toward East Timor that paved the way for a UN-sponsored referendum on East Timor’s independence – which passed with more than 78.5% support in 1999.

Soon after the vote, pro-Jakarta militias backed by the Indonesian military went on a killing and looting rampage in the capital, attacking churches, and targeting priests and those seeking refuge as they hunted down independence supporters.

Much of East Timor’s infrastructure was destroyed in the violence and about 200,000 people were forced to flee their homes. An Australian-led international peacekeeping mission ultimately intervened and East Timor officially won independence in 2002.

During Indonesian occupation, the Catholic Church played a huge role in defending people from attacks and pushing for a vote on independence – its church workers and the clergy paying a bloody price as a result.

Israeli airstrikes in central Syria have killed three people and injured at least 15 others, state-run Syrian news agency SANA reported Sunday.

SANA said there had been several explosions and “air defense engagements” in the central region of Syria, including in the Tartous and Hama governorates, that resulted in multiple civilian casualties.

The Syrian news agency cited a military source as saying “the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of northwest Lebanon, targeting a number of military sites in the central region” shortly before 8.30 p.m. local time on Sunday.

The source said Syrian air defenses had intercepted and shot down some of the missiles.

SANA said the strikes had damaged the Wadi al-Uyun highway in Masyaf and caused a blaze that firefighters were working to control.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Filipino pastor Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is wanted by both the FBI and local law enforcement officers on sexual abuse and human trafficking charges, has been arrested weeks after a standoff with the police.

In posts on Facebook, the Philippines’ Interior Minister Benhur Abolos, confirmed that the preacher, who had been on the run for three years, “has been caught.”

National police arrested Quiboloy, a self-styled “appointed son of God” and founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church (KOJC), along with four of his aides in the southern city of Davao after they surrendered, according to Filipino state media.

At 1:30 p.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET), the detainees were issued a 24-hour ultimatum to come out from the church’s sprawling 30-hectare (75 acre) compound. They surrendered four hours later, Philippine News Agency reported.

They have since been transported out of Davao by military aircraft, with booking procedures taking place at police headquarters in Quezon City near the country’s capital, Manila, according to state media.

“I thank him (Quiboloy) for the realization to face the law. I also thanked the KOJC members and supporters for their cooperation and I hope this is the start of healing,” Director of Police Regional Office 11, Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, said, according to Philippine News Agency.

Police had been attempting to arrest the preacher and five of his alleged accomplices in a raid that began more than two weeks ago in Davao.

Nearly 2,000 officers had surrounded the church compound, where Quiboloy was believed to be hiding, in a violent standoff with the preacher’s followers. His followers allegedly threw stones at officers and blocked a highway with burning tyres, Davao police said on Facebook.

A 2021 US indictment accused the 74-year-old preacher and his alleged accomplices of running a sex trafficking ring that coerced girls and young women to have sex with him under threats of “eternal damnation.” Quiboloy has denied all the charges against him.

Three Israeli border guards have been killed in a shooting at the Allenby Crossing on the border between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, the Israeli Emergency Services said Sunday.

The identity of the assailant is unknown at this time, and the Jordanian Interior Ministry said it begun an investigation.

The manager of the crossing, Alex Chen, said the shooter was a Jordanian driver, adding that the crossing has been closed until further notice. “The terrorist shot dead three employees of the Allenby terminal at close range,” before being killed by a security guard, he said.

All three land crossings between Israel and Jordan were closed following the attack, the Israel Airports Authority said. The Allenby crossing mainly serves Palestinians and foreigners, with Israelis not permitted to use it.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “a terrorist approached the area of the Allenby Bridge from Jordan in a truck, exited the truck, and opened fire at the Israeli security forces operating at the bridge.”

“Three Israeli civilians were pronounced dead as a result of the attack,” the IDF said, adding that the assailant had been shot dead. The IDF also published a photograph of the hand gun it said was used in the attack.

Israeli police spoke of “several casualties at the scene,” and also said the shooter had “been neutralized.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the shooting, saying the border guards were murdered by a “despicable terrorist.”

In remarks at the beginning of the weekly government meeting, Netanyahu said Israel was “surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran’s axis of evil.”

The incident on Sunday comes almost two weeks after Israel’s military launched one of its most expansive operations in the West Bank in years, carrying out raids, bulldozing highways, and launching airstrikes in multiple parts of the occupied territory.

Clashes in the West Bank have become more frequent since Israel began its war in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7.

Israeli troops and settlers have killed nearly 700 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, whose figures do not distinguish between militants and civilians.

Jordan became the second Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1994. It has been highly critical of Israel’s military operations in the West Bank and Gaza.

Jordan is a close ally of the United States, from which it receives substantial military aid.

Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, was downgraded to a tropical depression on Sunday, after wreaking havoc in northern Vietnam, China’s Hainan and the Philippines, claiming dozens of lives, according to preliminary reports.

Vietnam’s meteorological agency issued the downgrade on Sunday but cautioned about the ongoing risk of flooding and landslides as the storm, the strongest to hit the country in decades, moves westwards.

On Saturday, Yagi disrupted power supplies and telecommunications in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, causing extensive flooding, felling thousands of trees and damaging homes.

The government said the storm has led to at least three deaths in Hanoi, a city of 8.5 million, with these figures being preliminary. Fourteen people have died in Vietnam so far, according to reports, including four from a landslide in the province of Hoa Binh, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Hanoi.

A 53-year-old motorcyclist was killed after a tree fell on him in the northern Hai Duong province, state media reported. At least one body was recovered from the sea near the coastal city of Halong, where a dozen people were missing at sea, with rescue operations expected to start on Sunday when conditions allow.

Yagi has claimed the lives of four people on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, according to the latest update from local authorities. The civil defense office in the Philippines, the first country Yagi hit after forming last week, raised the death toll there on Sunday to 20 from 16 and said 22 people remained missing.

Risk of flash floods

After it made landfall in Vietnam on Saturday afternoon, Yagi triggered waves as high as 4 meters (13 feet) in coastal provinces, leading to extended power and telecommunication outages that have complicated damage assessment, the government said.

The meteorological agency warned of continued “risk of flash floods near small rivers and streams, and landslides on steep slopes in many places in the northern mountainous areas” and the coastal province of Thanh Hoa.

Relative calm returned on Sunday morning to Hanoi, where authorities rushed to clean up streets from toppled trees scattered across the city center and other neighborhoods.

“The storm has devastated the city. Trees fell down on top of people’s houses, cars and people on the street,” said 57-year-old Hanoi resident Hoang Ngoc Nhien.

Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport, the busiest in northern Vietnam, reopened on Sunday after closing on Saturday morning.

In Hainan, preliminary estimates suggested significant economic losses and widespread power outages, according to emergency response authorities cited by state-run Hainan Daily.

Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez has left the country en route to Spain, according to his lawyer and Venezuela’s vice president, after an arrest warrant was issued last week accusing him of terrorism, conspiracy and other crimes related to July’s disputed presidential election.

“Today, September 7, opposition citizen Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who has been a voluntary refugee in the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Caracas for several days, has left the country and requested political asylum from that government,” Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a statement.

Rodriguez said Venezuela allowed Gonzalez to leave “for the sake of the tranquility and political peace of the country.”

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said Gonzalez was “at his own request” flying to Spain on a Spanish Air Force plane. “The Government of Spain is committed to the political rights and physical integrity of all Venezuelans,” he wrote on X.

Gonzalez had previously ignored at least three summons to appear before prosecutors as part of an investigation into claims he secured a resounding win in the presidential election.

Authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of the election with 51% of the vote by the country’s electoral authority – a body stacked with the president’s allies –- despite tens of thousands of election tallies published by the opposition that showed a convincing win for Gonzalez.

Venezuela’s opposition and multiple Latin American leaders refused to recognize Maduro’s victory, which sparked deadly protests during which thousands were arrested.

The United States recently placed pressure on the Venezuelan government to “immediately” release specific data regarding its presidential election, citing concerns about the credibility of Maduro’s claimed victory, as it also seized one of Maduro’s planes, saying it was bought in violation of US sanctions.

AMANPOUR: General Syrskyi, welcome to the program.

SYRSKYI: [In English] Thank you very much.

AMANPOUR: So it’s great to be able to talk to you. It’s the first time you’re doing an interview on television. And I want to know why you think there’s such an uptick in the war against this country right now. Russian ballistic missiles just in one week alone in Lviv killed, you know, nearly 10 people. In Poltava, more than 50 people. Strikes all across the country.

SYRSKYI: [In Ukrainian] I believe that Russia is trying to force us to give up and break our will to resist by hitting our civilian objects and damaging civilian infrastructure. By targeting our civilians in this way, they are trying to break our will to win.

AMANPOUR: I want to ask you about Kursk, because I know that you spend time there, near the frontlines. And I know that you and President Zelensky came up with this operation. Tell me from your words and your view, what was the strategic purpose of the Ukrainian operation into Russian Kursk?

SYRSKYI: First, the enemy, Russian troops, had previously intended to use the Kursk direction as a foothold for further operations against our troops. On May 10, they launched an offensive in the Kharkiv direction, and just a few days later they planned to strike and advance in the Sumy direction by using the Kursk direction and the territories of the Kursk region as a springboard for further actions against our state, against our armed forces there.

Having suffered losses in the Kharkiv sector, they literally got stuck in their offensive and actually moved to the defense in Vovchansk. They stopped in the area of Hlyboke, in the area of Lyptsi. And the troops that went on the offensive in the Kharkiv direction were no longer enough. Then they gradually began to redeploy those units that were located in the Kursk region, in the Sumy direction, to the Kharkiv direction.

Thus, the offensive in the Sumy direction did not take place. But they continued to consider this direction, this springboard for further actions of their own. In addition, they continued to shell our settlements daily, which caused us to suffer losses, primarily among the civilian population. This lasted until May, and in May there was a significant intensification. It was already clear then that this delay was temporary.

For us, this direction was always a threat. Therefore, in assessing our capabilities, we chose the weakest point in the enemy’s defense, in the enemy’s structure. And this direction was chosen. This reduced the threat of an enemy offensive. We prevented them from acting. We moved the fighting to the enemy’s territory so that he could feel what we feel every day. And we created our own security zone in the Kursk region. In addition, we took a sufficient number of prisoners. We created an “exchange fund” in order to release our military personnel who are in captivity.

AMANPOUR: Some of your – for instance, your defense minister has said publicly that the reason was to divert Russian forces from other parts of the eastern front. But there are others on the eastern front, commanders, who say it hasn’t diverted enough forces, and there’s still a lot of pressure on your forces on the eastern front – that important logistical hub of Pokrovsk. So has it been strategically a success, and even tactically a success, what you’ve done in Kursk? And do you think you might lose Pokrovsk?

SYRSKYI: We are doing everything we can not to lose Pokrovsk. We are strengthening our defenses there. Over the past six days, the enemy has not advanced a single meter in the Pokrovsk direction. So our strategy is working. Of course, the enemy has concentrated the most trained of its units in the Pokrovsk sector. But we have deprived him of the ability to maneuver his units and the ability to redeploy his strengthening units from other areas.

So, in fact, it turns out that even though they did not move many troops from the Pokrovsk area except for one marine brigade, they are now unable to manoeuvre their reserves as they used to. And this weakening is actually felt in other areas. We note that the number of artillery attacks and the intensity of offensive actions have decreased. In fact, the Pokrovsk direction remains the most problematic for us. In other areas, the situation has become more stable. So I think this strategy was chosen correctly and it will bring us the desired result.

AMANPOUR: Can I ask you about the obvious imbalance, and that is, essentially Ukraine, while you’re fighting hard, you are outgunned by the Russians. They have much more air superiority, for instance, more drones, they have more missile capability, they have more artillery capability. How do you assess the difference between what you have and what they have? And how do you make up for that difference?

SYRSKYI: You are absolutely right, because the enemy does have an advantage in aviation, in missiles, in artillery, in the amount of ammunition they use, of course – in personnel, tanks, and infantry fighting vehicles. But this also motivates us. We cannot fight in the same way as they do, so we must use, first of all, the most effective approach, use our forces and means with maximum use of terrain features, engineering structures. And also to use technical superiority.

First of all, by focusing on high-tech weapons. These are primarily unmanned aerial systems for various purposes. You know that we have created the world’s first such kind of troops as the Unmanned Systems Forces. We have created a command, we have created units, we have created regiments, we have created battalions, which are now proving their effectiveness in various parts of the frontline. Our best unmanned systems units are concentrated in the Pokrovsk sector.

In addition, of course, we use maneuvers with force, reserves, and fire. Thanks to the actions of our government, the president of Ukraine, the minister of defense, we managed to reduce the difference between the ammunition used by us and the enemy. The proportion is actually one to two, one to two-and-a-half. A year ago, this figure was one to ten, one to six. We compensate for this difference with unmanned systems. We are constantly working on improving them, increasing their efficiency, improving the control system, ways and methods of usage. We are trying to maximize our technical superiority over the enemy to offset their superiority in terms of numbers.

AMANPOUR: You obviously have much, much less manpower than they do. The Russians have such a huge advantage of manpower over you. I think now they have something like more than half a million people under arms. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, they had a hundred thousand. It’s thought that they may have 700,000 by the end of this year. And you said when you took this job that one of the issues that you have to do is make sure you can replenish your ranks – draft, whatever it is, get more, more, more Ukrainians to fight. How is that going? Are you satisfied, or not?

SYRSKYI: In general, we manage to maintain our mobilisation capabilities at the appropriate level and ensure both replenishment of losses and training of new units. That is, thanks to the coordinated work of all state authorities, military bodies, primarily territorial recruitment centres, we maintain these performance levels and ensure the replenishment of our military units.

SYRSKYI: You are right on this point. The issue of morale is a very important area of our work. And, of course, we are talking about the Kursk operation again. This was a factor that significantly improved the morale of not only the military but the entire Ukrainian population. That is, it was and still is an incentive that has boosted the morale of our servicemen, their desire to win. This is first of all.

Secondly, regarding training: of course, everyone wants the level of training to be the best, so we train highly qualified, professional military personnel. At the same time, the dynamics at the front require us to put conscripted servicemen into service as soon as possible. That is why we usually conduct basic military training for at least a month, and qualified training from half a month to a month. Thus, our soldiers are trained for a month and more – up to two months. In the long term, we are considering increasing this period and this will give us certain advantages.

And now we focus primarily on the professionalism of our instructors, on building up our training and material base, our training centers, and using training schools where servicemen acquire advanced skills in mastering weapons and related equipment. This is also probably the main activity of the ground forces, airborne assault forces and other types of troops, which are aimed at training qualified specialists who take part in combat operations.

AMANPOUR: I want to know – I mean, you as commander, do you go to the frontlines? Do you go to the trenches? Do you talk to soldiers there, and commanders? What do they say to you? Because I know some of them have been there for, you know, more than two years. They barely get rotation, they don’t get to see their family, there are these glide bombs, these terrifying things, I mean, drones, there’s just so much. I mean, it’s almost, it’s almost World War I kind of, you know, attacks on them in the trenches. And they’re there for a long time, with no real hope of rotation. What do they say to you when you go to see them and talk to them?

SYRSKYI: We speak the same language. We understand each other no matter who I am talking to, whether it is an ordinary soldier, a rifleman, for example, or a brigade commander or a battalion commander. You know that I have been in this war since 2014. Since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, I have actually been participating in combat operations as the commander of the operational and strategic group. Now I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. That is, the frontline is my life. We understand each other, I know all the problems that our servicemen, soldiers, and officers experience.

Despite the difficult situation, we continue to carry out rotations. We didn’t stop this process even when Avdiivka was happening – when there were, perhaps, more difficult times. The issue of rotations remains a priority for us. Of course, people get exhausted and need rest. That is why the units are either withdrawn to the rear for rest or sent to training centers, where they spend a month or a month-and-a-half recuperating. In this way, people restore their combat capabilities, their moral and mental state, and get the opportunity to visit their families and friends.

AMANPOUR: You became the overall commander at about the time that the US Congress finally approved, you know, the tranche of weapons and help that they’d promised you. It was a delay of six to seven months. What material difference did that make to your fight – the fact that these weapons were delayed for so long?

SYRSKYI: Of course, this has had a negative impact. When there is nothing to shoot with, no one and nothing to hold back the enemy, first of all, it leads to an increase in the level of losses, an increase in our losses not only in material resources, but also in human resources. Because the highest value in the Ukrainian army is the life of a soldier. It is very painful for us and of course it is painful to see that the losses of soldiers are increasing.

Well, the effectiveness of the use of troops is also extremely reduced, because when you have nothing to shoot with, you cannot hit the enemy efficiently and effectively. And this leads to the loss of territory. So how can this affect us? Of course, negatively.

AMANPOUR: And has it made a significant difference that the weapons have started to come now?

SYRSKYI: Of course, this has led to significant changes. But we would like to see these weapons arrive sooner. Because, unfortunately, this process is happening, but it is happening with a delay. This is also a negative for us. Especially when it comes to the formation of new units or when a unit is formed and there is no equipment, no weapons, how should we perceive it? You plan to use a mechanized brigade, but in fact you use it as an infantry brigade. As a result, its combat capabilities and effectiveness are much lower.

AMANPOUR: And obviously your ministers, your president are really appealing to the United States especially to stop restrictions on how you can use the weapons that do get here. What would you do with these weapons, if there were no restrictions on them? How would you use them?

SYRSKYI: We have repeatedly declared how we are going to use them. Of course, we will use weapons only against military targets, primarily against missile systems that strike populated areas almost daily. This leads to the loss of civilian lives. You know how many schools and hospitals have been destroyed in Ukraine, including Okhmatdyt, a well-known hospital. In fact, it was destroyed in the center of Kyiv by Russian cruise missile strikes. We have such cases every day. Not only adults but also children are killed. And the latest strikes on Poltava, Kharkiv, Sumy – in fact, there is not a single city in Ukraine that has not felt or suffered these losses. This horror of war, wherever you go, we have the results of these strikes, destroyed buildings, schools, and kindergartens.

So for us, first and foremost, it is a fight against the enemy’s missile weapons. Of course, it is the hitting of their warehouses, bases where weapons are stored, where fuel for the army is stored. Of course, this is all their logistics, which ensures the transfer of these weapons to the frontline.

Of course, these are the airfields from which the strike aircraft of the Russian army, their Aerospace Forces, use missile weapons, use their guided aircraft bombs with gliding modules, which they drop to 70 kilometres, even more. And again, they hit schools and populated areas. These are the targets. Of course, we will use [long-range weapons] against this [such targets]. We are not fighting against civilians, we are fighting against the Russian army.

AMANPOUR: You’ve been calling for a long time for fighter jets and F-16s to be able to not only take the fight to the targets, but also to intercept cruise missiles and others. There’s been an F-16 crash. Can you tell us what was the cause of that crash?

SYRSKYI: Firstly, I want to say that our pilots have been trained. They were trained in the educational institutions of our partner countries, and of course, the best pilots were selected who already had experience in effectively using the aircraft that are in service with the Ukrainian armed forces. Of course, they came highly trained, as our partners also confirmed, and received all the approvals to operate these aircraft.

Now a special commission of the Ministry of Defence is conducting an investigation to find out all the facts of the catastrophe, the crash of this aircraft. But before that, I want to say that the pilot who died, he shot down two missiles and he was just attacking, chasing the third cruise missile, using on-board weapons.

I think the results of the investigation will be known to everyone shortly. And on the one hand, we are not going to hide it, but on the other hand, the effectiveness of the use of these aircraft has been proven by the results – the destruction of four cruise missiles by a pair of F-16s, so this will certainly strengthen our defence capabilities, first of all in the fight against enemy cruise missiles.

AMANPOUR: There was word that it could be friendly fire. Do you think it was friendly fire?

SYRSKYI: You know, I can’t comment on something where there is no result yet.

AMANPOUR: Do you have restrictions on how you can use the F-16s that you have? And not many are in combat, right? I mean, one, two. How many are you using right now and do you have restrictions on them?

SYRSKYI: You know, I wouldn’t talk about quantity, I would talk about quality and how we use it. We use this modification of the F-16 as an interceptor and fighter aircraft. It is designed for this purpose and has the appropriate equipment and weapons. We, of course, train our pilots and they train every day, they are preparing to act against various types of enemy air attacks. Therefore, it is during these training sessions it’s been clarified this is its main purpose – to fight against enemy cruise missiles. And, of course, with enemy aircraft, if they can fly over the line of contact.

AMANPOUR: General Syrskyi, you were head of land forces during the initial part of the invasion in 2022. And you were created Hero of Ukraine by the president for successfully repelling the Russian attempt to take Kyiv and you lifted the siege. Do you think there was a moment then, in early April, where the dynamic – well, it did change, but could have changed? Was there a moment that, maybe a missed opportunity to really end this war then?

SYRSKYI: It is difficult to answer this question. It was an opportunity to push back the enemy, an opportunity to break the myth of the Russian army’s invincibility. Despite the fact that there were not many units in Kyiv and the bulk of these troops were consolidated units, these were units created from cadets, from training units, and training centers. It is precisely their competent and thoughtful use, the use of maneuver, the use of maximum artillery capabilities, tank fire capabilities, primarily maneuver and mobile operations, that have shown that even with small forces and the right tactics, victories can and do come, both small and more significant.

And most importantly, you should always look for the centre of gravity, i.e. the weakest point in the [enemy’s] defence. You may recall what one of the Georgian military theorists called the cascading destruction of the enemy’s defences. This is exactly what happened near Kyiv, and it also happened near Kharkiv, when, at what seemed to be the height of the enemy’s offensive, it was hit with a spot attack that caused its defences to crumble, which significantly affected the further course of the war.

AMANPOUR: And finally, after successfully pushing the Russians back from Kyiv, and then there was, you know, the success in Kharkiv, and success in Kherson – since then, it’s been much more difficult and you haven’t done as much as you perhaps were expected to do. What do you expect? How do you expect the war to go for Ukraine over the next six months, for instance?

SYRSKYI: It is difficult to predict for such a long period of time, but of course we plan combat operations, we plan campaigns, we make appropriate calculations of our capabilities, the capabilities of the armed forces, our needs. And of course, we are committed to victory. And the help of our partners, our allies, would help us a lot. It would help us a lot if all restrictions on the use of weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation against military targets – I repeat, not against the civilian population, against military targets – were lifted.

The planned deliveries of weapons and equipment would allow us to bring our new brigades, which have already been formed and are in the process of being formed, into service as soon as possible. Of course, this would have an impact on the overall level of our capabilities.

That’s how I see it. That is, only in the fight can we win. And we are all determined to win. And again, the Kursk operation showed that victory is the incentive that boosts the morale of our military and our entire population. That’s the only way to do it and no other way.

AMANPOUR: General Oleksandr Syrskyi, thank you so much for joining us.

SYRSKYI: I thank you as well, it was a very interesting conversation. Now, if we’re about to finish, then of course I would like to extend words of gratitude to all of our partners for the assistance, for the support, the political, the logistical, the material support that’s provided to us on a daily basis. We clearly understand that we’re not left alone, that only together we can be victorious, and I’m grateful to everyone, because together we’re stronger. [IN ENGLISH] Together we can win.

AMANPOUR: Together we can win. That’s really a good way to end. Thank you so much.

SYRSKYI: [In English] We have to win.

AMANPOUR: You have to win?

SYRSKYI: [In English] Yeah.

AMANPOUR: Thank you, General Syrskyi.

Dima never puts out a cigarette until he smokes it right down to the filter, risking burning his fingers to squeeze out one more drag. He spent years on the Ukrainian front lines. He knows the price of a good smoke.

As a battalion commander, Dima was in charge of around 800 men who fought in some of the fiercest, bloodiest battles of the war – most recently near Pokrovsk, the strategic eastern town that is now on the brink of falling to Russia.

But with most of his troops now dead or severely injured, Dima decided he’d had enough. He quit and took another job with the military – in an office in Kyiv.

Two and half years of Russia’s grinding offensive have decimated many Ukrainian units. Reinforcements are few and far between, leaving some soldiers exhausted and demoralized. The situation is particularly dire among infantry units near Pokrovsk and elsewhere on the eastern front line, where Ukraine is struggling to stop Russia’s creeping advances.

Four of the six, including Dima, have asked for their names to be changed or withheld due to the sensitive nature of the topic and because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

“They go to the positions once and if they survive, they never return. They either leave their positions, refuse to go into battle, or try to find a way to leave the army,” he added.

Unlike those who volunteered earlier in the war, many of the new recruits didn’t have a choice in entering the conflict. They were called up after Ukraine’s new mobilization law came into force in the spring and can’t leave legally until after the government introduces demobilization, unless they get special permission to do so.

Yet the discipline problems clearly began way before this. Ukraine went through an extremely difficult patch during last winter and spring. Months of delay in getting US military assistance into the country led to a critical ammunition shortage and a major slump in morale.

“The days are long, they live in a dugout, on duty around the clock and if they can’t shoot, the Russians have an advantage, they hear them advancing and they know that if they had fired it wouldn’t have happened,” said Andryi Horetskyi, a Ukrainian military officer whose unit is now fighting in Chasiv Yar, another eastern frontline hot spot.

As the battlefield situation deteriorated, an increasing number of troops started to give up. In just the first four months of 2024, prosecutors launched criminal proceedings against almost 19,000 soldiers who either abandoned their posts or deserted, according to the Ukrainian parliament. More than a million Ukrainians serve in the country’s defense and security forces, although this number includes everyone, including people working in offices far away from the front lines.

This approach became so common that Ukraine changed the law to decriminalize desertion and absence without leave, if committed for the first time.

Pokrovsk has become the epicenter of the fight for Ukraine’s east. Russian forces have been inching towards the city for months, but their advances have sped up in recent weeks as Ukrainian defenses begin to crumble.

‘Everything feels the same’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear his goal is to gain control over the entirety of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions and taking over Pokrovsk, an important military and supply hub, would be a major step towards that objective.

It sits on a key road that connects it to other military cities in the area and a railroad that links it with Dnipro. The last major coking coal mine still under Kyiv’s control is also just to the west of the city, supplying coke to make steel – an indispensable wartime resource.

Ukrainian soldiers in the area paint a grim picture of the situation. Kyiv’s forces are clearly outnumbered and outgunned, with some commanders estimating there are 10 Russian soldiers to each Ukrainian.

But they also appear to be struggling with problems of their own making.

There have even been cases of troops not disclosing the full battlefield picture to other units out of fear it would make them look bad, the officer said.

One battalion commander in northern Donetsk said his flank was recently left exposed to Russian attacks after soldiers from neighboring units abandoned their positions without reporting it.

The high number of different units that Kyiv has sent to the eastern front lines has caused communication problems, according to several rank-and-file soldiers who were until recently fighting in Pokrovsk.

One said it was not unheard of to have Ukrainian signal jammers affecting vital coordination and drone launches because units from different brigades didn’t communicate properly.

Kyiv launched its surprise incursion into Kursk last month, taking Moscow by surprise and quickly advancing some 30 kilometers (19 miles) into Russian territory.

Ukraine’s leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, said one of the goals of the operation was to prevent further attacks on northern Ukraine, while also showing Kyiv’s Western allies that, with the right support, the Ukrainian military can fight back and eventually win the war.

The operation also gave a major boost to an exhausted nation. Ukraine has been on the backfoot for most of the past year, enduring relentless attacks, blackouts and heartbreaking losses.

But the sappers were not too sure about the strategy. Having just finished a long mission over the border, they were slumped around a table outside a closed restaurant near the frontier, waiting for their car to turn up.

Chain smoking and trying to stay awake, they questioned why they were sent to Kursk when the eastern front line is in disarray.

All four have been fighting for more than two-and-half years and theirs is a tough job. As sappers, they spend days on the front lines, clearing mine fields, preparing defenses and conducting controlled explosions. They can find themselves under attack, ahead of even the first line of infantry, dragging around some 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of kit and four anti-tank mines, each weighing about 10 kilograms (22 pounds).

“It depends on each commander. Some units receive rotations and have time off, while others are just fighting non-stop, the whole system is not very fair,” one of the soldiers said. Asked if the advances in Kursk gave them the same boost as the rest of the nation, they remained skeptical.

‘Rotten approach’

“The Kursk operation… significantly improved the morale of not only the military but the entire Ukrainian population,” he said.

He said he had been going to the front lines regularly to meet with the soldiers there and do what he could to make them feel better. “We understand each other no matter who I am talking to, whether it is an ordinary soldier, a rifleman, for example, or a brigade commander or a battalion commander… I know all the problems that our servicemen, soldiers, and officers experience. The front line is my life,” he said.

And Horetskyi – an officer specially trained to provide moral and psychological support to troops – is part of the plan to boost morale.

“They have this idea that I’m a shrink that will make them take thousands of tests and then tell them they are sick, so I try to break down the barriers,” he said, adding that little distractions can prevent a downward spiral.

In the monotony of war, any break from the routine can help, he said. This can include a wash in a real shower, a haircut or going for a swim in a lake. “It’s such a little thing, but it gets them out of the routine for half a day, it makes them happy, and they can return to their positions a bit more relaxed,”  Horetskyi explained.

Even officers with many years of experience are finding the situation in the east difficult.

Some, like Dima, are transferring to posts away from the front lines. He said his decision to leave the battlefield was mostly down to disagreements with a new commander.

The ranks of Dima’s battalion grew thinner and thinner, until the unit disappeared.

They never received enough reinforcements, Dima says, something he blames squarely on the government and its reluctance to recruit more people.

The battalion suffered painful losses in the past year, fighting on multiple front lines before being sent to Pokrovsk without any rest. Dima saw so many of his men killed and wounded, he became numb.

“I’ve now made the decision that I will stop getting attached to people emotionally. It’s a rotten approach, but it’s the most sensible one,” he said.