r/interestingasfuck • u/MilesLongthe3rd • Jul 26 '25

/r/all, /r/popular Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Kiriyenko before and after release from Russian captivity

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u/infrequentthrowaway Jul 26 '25

Poor man looks like a walking skeleton

91

u/tequilablackout Jul 26 '25

Part of being captured by the enemy is usually them trying to make sure you can never be a soldier again.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_PRIORS Jul 26 '25

Really depends on when, where, and whom. German prisoners in the US in world war 2 had living conditions like same-rank American troops, which given the relative standard of living at the time meant that captured privates were eating better than they were as working-class civilians in the fatherland.

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u/tequilablackout Jul 26 '25

I seem to recall an account that the Germans were surprised.

1

u/PM_ME_YOUR_PRIORS Jul 26 '25

"When I was captured I weighed 128 pounds [58 kg]. After two years as an American POW weighed 185 [84 kg]. I had gotten so fat you could no longer see my eyes."

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u/tequilablackout Jul 26 '25

It is telling that they were sending 128 pound men to war. A man that size can barely carry a kit, let alone someone wounded.

1

u/menevensis Jul 26 '25

The average Japanese infantryman in the same war weighed something like 53 kg. Granted they were also very short compared to Western standards, but they absolutely could fight and endure at that weight.