An outbreak of ‘mouse fever’ is ‘mowing down Russia‘s frontline troops’, Ukraine has claimed, with symptoms ranging from ‘vomiting and bleeding eyes’.
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on the outbreak of the disease among Russian units in Kupyansk, a city in the country’s east.
Russian soldiers there are said to be struggling with a lack of winter provisions as troops prepare to spend a second Christmas fighting Vladimir Putin‘s war.
Ukraine said the disease is a type of streptococcal infection transmitted to humans through direct contact with rodents, or inhaling their faeces.
‘In the Kupyansk direction of the front, the occupiers are mowed down en masse by ‘mouse fever’ the update posted to the Telegram messaging app said.
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An outbreak of ‘mouse fever’ is ‘mowing down Russia ‘s frontline troops’, Ukraine has claimed, with symptoms ranging from ‘vomiting and bleeding eyes’. Pictured: A Ukrainian military health worker holds up a mouse with scissors in a trench, December 16
‘As a result, mouse fever significantly reduced the fighting ability of Russian rats.’
Ukraine said so-called ‘mouse fever’ can cause ‘severe headaches, body temperature rising to 40 degrees, rashes and redness, decreased blood pressure, haemorrhages in the eyes, nausea and vomiting several times a day’.
It added: ‘Because the disease affects the kidneys, a person infected with mouse fever experiences intense pain in the lower back and has severe difficulty urinating.’
Ukraine’s HUR claimed the Russian soldiers’ suffering has fallen on deaf ears, with commanders taking their complaints as an excuse to avoid fighting.
‘Complaints about fever from personnel of the Russian army, who are involved in the war against Ukraine, were ignored by the command, regarding them as another manifestation of evasion from participating in combat operations,’ the post said.
‘In addition, at the first stage of the course, ‘mouse fever’ resembles an ordinary flu.’
While ‘mouse fever’ does not appear to be a clinical term, the symptoms listed appeared similar to leptospirosis, also known as rat-bite fever, although it was not immediately clear if this is precisely the same disease Ukraine referenced.
Leptospirosis is also spread through contact with rodents.
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Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on the outbreak of the disease among Russian units in Kupyansk, a city in the country’s east
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A crewmember of the 122-mm self-propelled howitzer 2S1 Gvozdika prepares the howitzer for firing onto Russian positions near the occupied Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on December 18
The claim comes towards the end of a gruelling year in Ukraine, which has seen Kyiv’s counteroffensive fail to live up to expectations, emboldening Putin.
The war is now all-but at a stalemate along hundreds of miles of front lines, with the two sides separated by snow, trenches and deadly mine fields.
Many soldiers are hunkered down in frozen trenches, under constant threat from artillery and drone strikes.
Ukrainian soldiers have in the past complained about rats and mice inside the trenches, with their Russian enemies presumably suffering from the same problems.
Pictures of rats ‘the size of a Kalashnikov assault rifle’ have been shared on social media, Tyler Kustra, assistant professor of politics and international relations at the University of Nottingham told EuroNews.
Russia’s forces ‘are dealing with a severe rodent infestation as mice and rats seek warmth and food by going into their trenches,’ he said.
‘Given that the Ukrainians are just on the other side of the front line, I worry that Putin isn’t the only vermin that they will have to deal with.’
Both sides have suffered heavy casualties, and there are concerns that the momentum could shift in Russia’s favour when winter thaws next year – unless Ukraine can secure much-needed funding from its Western allies.
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Ukrainian soldiers have in the past complained about rats and mice inside the trenches, with their Russian enemies presumably suffering from the same problems
Meanwhile, Ukraine on Wednesday said nine people, including four children, were wounded by Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson as drones also targeted the capital Kyiv and the second-largest city Kharkiv.
‘During the evening shelling of Kherson by the Russian occupiers, nine people were injured, four of them were children,’ said Roman Mrochko, head of Kherson, adding that the children were between two and 13 years old.
A mother and her three children were hospitalised but ‘their condition is moderate. They have contusions and… explosive injuries’, Mrochko said on Telegram.
Several Iranian-made Shahed drones were also shot down by Ukrainian air defences as they headed toward Kyiv, according to the head of the capital’s military administration, Serhii Popko.
According to the preliminary data of the operational summary, there were no victims or destruction in the capital,’ he wrote on Telegram, adding that the attack, the fifth on Kyiv in December, was staged from the Black Sea.
Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov reported at least two strikes near residential buildings in his city. The Ukraine air force said Kharkiv was hit with ‘two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles’ fired from Russia’s Belgorod region.
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Firefighters work at the site of a damaged building following shelling in Donetsk
No casualties have been reported so far.
It also said a ‘total 19 Shahed launches were recorded, 18 of which were destroyed within in the Odesa, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Chernigiv and Kirovograd regions’.
Moscow has stepped up its nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, at a time when the West’s willingness to support the country seems to be waning.
Analysts believe Moscow’s forces will target infrastructure to grind down Ukraine’s ability to resist a renewed Russian push into the country next year.
I've updated this 18th March 2022
I'm Michael Casey from Birmingham England, the fat silver haired writer in shades.
Beware of Others with the EXACT SAME NAME, they are not me, and would not want to be me ...
use Google UK to find me, otherwise Posh Americans pop up
I've done loads of writing, about 2,000,000 Words worth over 34years now
But before I started to write, I LISTENED to BBC Radio 4 for 20 years,
from the age of 10 or younger
Frank Brown our lodger, went back to County Tyrone and he gifted us his Bush Radio.
He'd be nearly 100 now if he is still alive, so say a prayer for him
54 years in love with words, and I still look so dashing.
I have a picture in the attic, just like Dorian Gray
I've also had an interest in Politics for 54 years
with my dad heckling the tv and Politicians.
I almost immediately had a hit, a play called Shoplife was accepted but not finally
produced by a Theatre.
The Kenneth More Theatre, so thank them for sparing you all. This was back in 1989 yes, 30 years plus ago, the play was written in 1988. So since then I'm more than good enough, as a writer. Anything else.....
I also ignore those who just cannot write, pick your own candidate
I tend to write Comedy as I'd rather make you laugh than cry
I have written over 2000 short pieces of writing, yes 2000
" (c) by Michael Casey"
If you include "chats" 3700 samples, all told,
the chats do NOT go into my books when I compile them.
My first book ,a full length comedy/drama is The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
You can read translations of it here on this site
Up to 20 different languages/translations have been read on the same day
via this site, here on Wordpress look fo Translations Galore page, and more
And in over 90 Countries world wide too
so you have no excuse, find your own language
and read
The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
or Quick Stories or any other of the books in Translation on my Wordpress
This proves to me that the humour does travel
I have readers in over 100 countries now, just to repeat myself
From Nepal to American Samoa and all places North South East and West
Or its just a hit man on the run,
or whatever Unknown Region Means
It may also mean that only non English Speakers like my stuff
Coverage but lacking penetration as marketing folks might say
I did get 21,000 readers in 3 weeks for the Polish version of In Search of an Indian Princess.
which is basically the final 3 chapters of The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
all by word of mouth. And 50,000 plus in Christmas week 2021
If you add up all the downloads from my Wordpress + 13,000 when somebody stole the file.
I have had more copies than Boris Johnson's Churchill book distributed.
Maybe 40,000 copies .
Not made a penny from it, free downloads in multiple languages.
Reverse Logic, if the world knows me, eventually somebody will pay me
But in reality I'll be dead first, and then just 2 pennies to pay the ferryman is enough
I've cut the Plaudits, you can read/decide for yourself
As for my life, I was born in the shadow of a Brewery,
I was a computer operator for a market research company into alcohol sales,
21 years altogether, StatsMR
Call centre guy, like everybody once in their life
I was also a Trainee Betting Shop Manager
I was a concierge and 10 other roles at Crowne Plaza NEC Birmingham for 3 years.
Spent 3 years at Pinsent Masons Law firm in Birmingham
I even hid a copy of my comic novel "BBU" in the Law Library at Pinsent Masons, well just for a day..
I did a few other jobs too, working life in reverse so to speak
and I was an Esol English teacher in an Islamic school, for a year, I knew I could teach.
I got Excellent, Excellent and Exemplary on the external assessment, yes really
And I asked them to pray for me at least once a day
beside which I've had a Shanghai connection for 20 years now, including 2 bilingual daughters
and being a hausfrau a long time too, I'm a great dad, as I've had lots of time with my daughters
I can always make somebody talk or laugh
I believe my short stories could be used to teach English, just package them up correctly
or App them
Or a Tale a Day from Michael, a story telling App
What else, I was brawn and brains, I used to be as strong as an Ox, now I just smell like one
We have a cat called Totoro, my daughters wanted a pet I said they could have a dog if I died , or a cat if I had a heart attack. A few weeks after that in Jan 2015 I had an Unplanned Quadruple Heart Bypass , it was supposed to be a triple but it ended up a Quadruple, 33% extra free so to speak. Now with an add on Hernia, the size of your fist, pushing through my bypass scar, it hurts when I laugh, so don't make me laugh
I also have arthritis and other hindrances that hobble my body and give me pain galore.
But my mind is free, though having read my stories you may wish I didn't bother
But I'll ignore you, and carry on regardless. I do get heckled by my own Tinnitus these past
3 years+, so I have music on all night long to drown it out.
I sleep with Miley, Taylor, Eric Clapton and Will Young,
maybe I should buy a bigger bed, or just get a better mattress.
Tinnitus is a curse, just trust me I know, each day I wake up,
Tinnitus SCREAMS at me for a full hour till it calms down
That's the end of the tidy version of my life
To finish here's the list of my 20 books, so far:-
1.The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker
2.Shoplife
3.Essays and Plays
4.Blogs 2011
5.300 and Not OUT
6.Shorts 2013
7.More Shorts 2014
8.Quick Stories
9.Still Alive 2015
10.Undiscovered Words 2016
11.Still Smiling 2017
12.Altogether Now
13.New Horizons
14.14 Up
15.15 Down
16.Sweet Sixteen
17. 17 Again
18. 18 New Views
19. The Final Cut of the 19th Hole
20. 2020 Words
21. 21 Door Keys, key to the door 21 on Bingo, hence title,
53,000 words so far
I write bullet point stuff mainly now as Tinnitus stops me from
getting in the zone to write, story stories. (c) by Michael Casey stuff
though my bullet points are better than some "writers" discuss, miaow.
That's why I dream of a speed typist, so I could dictate from the sofa
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Casey/e/B00571G0YC to buy ebooks
Loads of Korean and Arabic translations downloaded from my Wordpress, 1000s of them
Quick Stories in Korean is a big hit. Maybe Kim in North Korea should read my books, instead of wasting his countries resources on what? Just keeping one person in power, him? Instead of joining the real world and opening a string on golf courses. That way we could get rid of Trump too. Into the sunset, as they play golf.
Tears for a Butcher will be the sequel to BBU, and it too will be 600pages,
however I really need
a speed typist to put it down, while I sit and dictate like Barbara Cartland, and hopefully my speed typist would be impressed. we'd marry have half Korean kids, and form a Kpop band with our 4 new kids, with me as manager.
And yes this is more for my bucket list, as Tinnitus keeps me awake too much, 6 months of not sleeping till dawn is really killing me
Michael Casey
aka the fat silver haired writer in shades from Birmingham England
https://2.gravatar.com/avatar/efda2dca0de5b9269191b7c8b0102473?s=400&d=mm
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