KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Some new Ukrainian soldiers refuse to fire at the enemy. Others, according to commanders and fellow fighters, struggle to assemble weapons or to coordinate basic combat movements. A few have even walked away from their posts, abandoning the battlefield altogether.
While Ukraine presses on with its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, its troops are still losing precious ground along the country’s eastern front — a grim erosion that military commanders blame in part on poorly trained recruits drawn from a recent mobilization drive, as well as Russia’s clear superiority in ammunition and air power.
“Some people don’t want to shoot. They see the enemy in the firing position in trenches but don’t open fire. … That is why our men are dying,” said a frustrated battalion commander in Ukraine’s 47th Brigade. “When they don’t use the weapon, they are ineffective.”
The accounts come from commanders and soldiers who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely about sensitive military matters. Others spoke on the condition that they be identified only by their call signs in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol.
Commanders say the recruits have contributed to a string of territorial losses that enabled Russia’s army to advance, including near the city of Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub. If it falls, the defeat would imperil Ukraine’s defenses and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the Donetsk region. Russian soldiers are now just 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away.
Adding to Ukraine’s woes are Russia’s huge advantage in manpower and its willingness to accept staggering losses in return for capturing small objectives.
The recently conscripted Ukrainians are a far cry from the battle-hardened fighters who flocked to join the war in the first year of the full-scale invasion. The new troops lack even a minimal level of training, commanders and soldiers from four brigades defending the Pokrovsk area said.
They described having to plan operations with infantry who are unable to shoot targets and uninformed about basic topography. Some recruits simply lacked faith in the battle plans of their superiors and walked away from prepared positions.
Frustrated with the quality of the new conscripts sent to the front line by territorial recruitment centers, commanders are now seeking to conduct their own mobilization drives to better screen and train new fighters, multiple commanders and soldiers said.
“The main problem is the survival instinct of newcomers. Before, people could stand until the last moment to hold the position. Now, even when there is light shelling of firing positions, they are retreating,” said a soldier with the 110th Brigade.
Not everyone is turning around and running away from battle, he added.
“No, there are motivated people, but they are just very, very few,” he said. “The position is held as far as there are these people who are motivated and committed.”
Following the implementation of a controversial mobilization law in May that established clearer regulations for territorial recruitment centers, Ukraine is reportedly drafting tens of thousands of fighters per month. Demand is highest in the infantry.
But there are logistical hurdles to train, equip and pay so many incoming people, and commanders constantly demand new soldiers. To ease that pressure, military leaders have had to take units from brigades in one region and transfer them to different areas to stabilize weak spots.
Some point the finger back at commanders who single out recent recruits for losses.
Viktor Kevliuk, a military expert with the Ukraine-based Center for Defense Strategies think tank, said the training offered to recruits is adequate. He said brigade commanders “are looking for an explanation for tactical failures.”
“Likewise, the brigade commander has the appropriate tools to influence morale. If all these processes are established in the brigade, there will be no significant problems. If these mechanisms fail, we read about the negativity in social networks,” he added.
And in intense fights such as the one in Pokrovsk, “it is the timely tactical decisions of commanders that make the difference, Kevliuk said.
In some instances, terrified new recruits have fled from the fight.
“This fear creates panic and chaos,” said the battalion commander in the 47th Brigade. “This is also the reason we have lost.”
The loss of the village of Prohres last month in the Pokrovsk region is the most recent example of territorial loss blamed on new recruits, commanders said. Units from the 31st Brigade left in a poorly coordinated frenzy, prompting the 47th Brigade to enter the battle and attempt to stabilize the line. A similar scenario unfolded in the village of Ocheretyne in May.
Not enough is done to train newcomers, the battalion commander said. “They don’t receive even the lowest standard of training required for our (combat) actions,” he said.
The new men do not have enough practice assembling and shooting their rifles, he said. They also have not learned how to coordinate combat tasks in small groups or to use even simple tactics, he added.
“From the command point, I would like to issue orders to small (infantry) groups, but I am not sure if they are capable of executing these orders because they lack coordination and communication,” he said, adding, “Sometimes, I want to shoot myself.”
Ukraine’s sudden foray into Russia initially stirred hopes that the Kremlin might be forced to divide its military resources to respond. But so far, Russian forces have not wavered in their push toward Pokrovsk and other potential conquests.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s lightning advance into Russian territory has slowed after two weeks, making only small gains, a possible sign that Moscow is counter-attacking more effectively.
Commanders in the east report that battles have only intensified since the incursion. Local authorities on Monday ordered Pokrovsk’s nearly 53,000 residents to evacuate within two weeks. In the neighboring town of Myrnohrad, even closer to Russian positions, residents were given only days.
The capture of Pokrovsk would undermine Ukrainian supply routes to the Donetsk region and ease Russia’s advance to the eastern cities of Sloviansk and Kostiantynivka. It would also mark Russia’s first major strategic win after months of painfully fought marginal gains.
In the last three months, the majority of Ukrainian territorial losses were recorded in the Pokrovsk area, according to three open-source monitoring groups, with fighting intensifying in the vicinity of the towns of Toretsk and Chasiv Yar. Russian forces dialed up the attacks in an attempt to capitalize on troop fatigue and shortages.
The offensive has also come at a huge cost to Moscow, with an estimated 70,000 troops lost in two months, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry, which posted the projection last month on X. Heavy losses have continued as Russian forces gradually approach Pokrovsk from the east and southeast.
Another challenge for Ukraine is a new tactic in which Russia deploys recurrent waves of smaller infantry units of two to four men. That has flummoxed Ukrainian drone operators, who find it difficult to target them, according to a drone operator with the 25th Brigade who uses the call sign Groot.
“This is one of the main reasons for (Russia’s) success in Pokrovsk,” he said. “It’s harder to detect them,” especially under the cover of leafy trees.
“As soon as the infantry get under the tree lines, it’s really hard to get them out of there with drones, and that’s why we depend a lot on our infantry.”
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Associated Press journalist Volodymyr Yurchuk contributed.