Ukraine war: Kyiv’s frontline troops fight Russia without knowing how to fire a gun, ‘everything learned on the spot’
- Frontline Ukrainian units getting new troops have to reteach soldiers the basic skills like firing their weapons, according to a Washington Post report
- Some said Ukrainian training centres also don’t have bullets and grenades for new recruits, the outlet reported
Ukrainian soldiers say their reinforcements are arriving on the front lines without fundamental skills such as assembling rifles and firing their weapons, The Washington Post reported.
The outlet spoke to commanders and newly deployed troops on the front, who said their units must retrain soldiers being sent from the rear.
The report, published on Sunday, underscores concerns that have been voiced for months by Ukrainian units, who say they’re running out of experienced troops as the war drags on.
As Ukraine rotates men from rear posts to relieve its frontline fighters, some fresh arrivals aren’t meeting their commanders’ basic requirements, per the Post. Notably, these aren’t even the newly conscripted men Kyiv has been aggressively drafting in the last few months.
One officer of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, identified by his call sign Schmidt, told the Post that some of his new men didn’t know how to assemble or disassemble their rifles.
