The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are replacing losses with “aged” and poorly trained mobilised personnel, many of whom are alcohol-dependent. This was reported by the US newspaper The New York Times.
“Ukraine’s military prospects look bleak. Western military aid is no longer being provided at the same level as in past years. Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive in the south is over, having achieved none of its objectives,” The New York Times wrote.
According to the newspaper, Ukrainian soldiers are fatigued from the long battles, and losses, in turn, are only partially replenished by elderly and poorly trained recruits.
One Ukrainian soldier, who wished to remain unnamed, showed the paper’s journalists a video taken at a recent exercise. The footage shows instructors holding a man over 50 years old so that he can fire a rifle. The soldier explained that the man in the video suffers from alcoholism.
“Three out of ten soldiers who come are no better than drunks who fell asleep and woke up in uniform,” – the publication quotes the words of a Ukrainian soldier commenting on the state of the new recruits arriving in his brigade.
Earlier, a soldier of one of the Ukrainian elite units said in a conversation with the German TV channel Welt that the Ukrainian Armed Forces regret the inflated expectations of a quick victory.