Reports indicate that as much as 70 percent of the Armed Forces of Ukraine's newest recruits are getting killed or injured after just a few days on the frontlines due to their lack of training and experience.
European media outlets reported that the new recruits have low morale, are prone to panic in the face of Russian fire and are unable to properly bridge the skills gap that continues to widen as more trained and experienced Ukrainian soldiers are killed, wounded or otherwise taken off the frontlines. (Related: Ukrainian Armed Forces have been drafting 30,000 troops each month since May, reports reveal.)
Ukraine Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was appointed to the position in early February, noted that new recruits were consistently lacking the necessary training to be capable of participating in frontline operations. He said the newest personnel had received as little as two months of training.
The extremely shortened training time, coupled with poor training standards in general and the sheer technological superiority of the Russian Armed Forces, indicate the very poor quality of the latest batch of conscripts in the Ukrainian Army.
A prior report from the Wall Street Journal said that Ukraine was recruiting poor, older men, equipping them with Soviet-era gear and sending them to the front with less than a week's worth of training in the belief that frontline fighting will teach these recruits.
Commanders in the Donetsk front in the contested southeastern Ukraine are noting how the new conscripts are so lacking in basic combat skills and motivation, they quickly abandon their positions when they come under fire.
These commanders estimate that between 50 to 70 percent of the new conscripts get killed or wounded within days of their first frontline rotation.
More experienced soldiers are being replaced on the frontlines with new, older recruits
One Ukrainian commander spoke of a small team of six experienced Ukrainian soldiers who, for six days and nights in early September, withstood a relentless Russian assault against an area southeast of the major city of Pokrovsk in the contested Donetsk Oblast.
All of these elite troops were under 40 with an average of two years of fighting experience each. These men reportedly held their ground despite a barrage of rockets, and the commander claims they were able to kill over 100 Russian soldiers.
"When they rotated out, they were trembling. They hadn't slept or rested," said their commander. "But those guys did their job and held the line."
The commander lamented how the troops who replaced them were far from ideal. Eight soldiers rotated in to replace them – only two of them had previous combat experience, and the other six were all new recruits over the age of 40. All six of these recruits were killed or wounded within a week, forcing the unit to retreat and forcing Ukraine to give up ground to Russia.
Similar scenes are playing out throughout the frontlines between Russia and Ukraine. Well-trained and experienced Ukrainian troops, sometimes with years of experience, would allegedly be able to outgun Russian troops. But when they are rotated out, they are replaced by new recruits with barely any training who quickly get injured or killed in combat.
"When the new guys get to the position, a lot of them run away at the first shell explosion," said one commander who recently fought in Vuhledar in Donetsk, which was recently captured by Russian forces.
"We are most vulnerable during rotations," he added. "That's when Russia is able to advance. The infantry is crucial to our defense."
Watch this report discussing how captured Ukrainian conscripts tell their captors how they are being forced to fight against their will.
This video is from the channel Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth on Brighteon.com.
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EU nations reject Zelensky's plea to repatriate fighting-age Ukrainian refugees.
Ukraine rushing to recruit PRISONERS to fight on the frontlines as troops dwindle.
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