The Ukrainian front is starting to look like scattered words. That's what the urgent directive from the supreme commander Oleksandr Syrsky, sent to all commanders, says: rotations have to follow the rules, not ad hoc decisions.

Under the order, a soldier must not stay at the front for more than two months. The rotation should last no more than a single month. The figure sounds administrative - but behind it sits a problem that has shaken Ukrainian units for at least a year: people on the line for six, eight, even ten months without a replacement. Without water. Without food. Without medical check-ups.

Syrsky writes this as if it were news. It isn't. It's an admission. Commanders so far have not run rotations "on time and in line with tactics and resources". Who's at fault? Everyone. The commanders. The defence ministry. The logistics teams. Everyone.

In the same document, Syrsky asks for "medical examinations and rest after combat missions". He speaks of "guaranteed supplies of ammunition and food". These words are funny in an army where a soldier after two years in the trench loses even the will to revolt. Then the words arrive like a too-late letter from the boss: "from now on, such things will not happen".

For the Balkans, who for decades have carried in our heads the images of exhausted soldiers in deployments without end, this isn't a new story. Exhaustion in war isn't a sign of defeat. It is the start of defeat. When Syrsky asks for rotations, he isn't talking about organisational efficiency. He's talking about an army that is starting to fall under its own weight.