Poor Training Leads to Eastern Front Losses, Says AFU Commanders

Poor training and issues prevailing in Ukraine’s mobilization drive have led to subpar performances that enabled Russian gains in eastern Ukraine, said military commanders.

Speaking to AP News, Ukraine’s military commanders have voiced concerns over incidents where some recruits “don’t want to shoot” due to poor training, which has contributed to Russia’s creeping advances to merely 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from the Donetsk region stronghold of Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

“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.

“When they don’t use the weapon, they are ineffective,” a battalion commander in Ukraine’s 47th Brigade told AP News anonymously.

“This fear creates panic and chaos … This is also the reason we have lost,” he added.

Fresh recruits often lacked even the most basic training compared to the experienced troops who joined the fight in the initial days of Moscow’s 2022 invasion, commanders and soldiers from four brigades defending the Pokrovsk area said.

The issues ranged from a lack of basic shooting skills and topography knowledge to outright abandoning positions due to distrust in their superiors, the interviewees claimed.

“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,” a soldier with the 110th Brigade told AP News.

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“No, there are motivated people, but they are just very, very few…The position is held as far as there are these people who are motivated and committed,” he added.

The commander of the 47th Brigade also voiced his frustrations over the recruits’ inability to carry out combat tasks, stating that “they lack coordination and communication.”

“Sometimes, I want to shoot myself,” he said.

Underlying issues

Some commanders attribute the losses to the poor quality of the new conscripts sent to the front line by territorial recruitment centers (TRC), while a military expert attributed the issues to poor command.

Viktor Kevliuk, a military expert with the Ukraine-based Center for Defense Strategies think tank, told AP News that recruits are adequately trained, and 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,” Kevliuk said.

Meanwhile, multiple commanders and soldiers said they are exploring options to conduct their own mobilization drives by screening and recruiting troops themselves instead of doing so through TRCs.

The new mobilization drive that started on May 18, as well as the practices of the TRCs, have long been a sensitive issue within Ukrainian society.

While the new mobilization drive has provided Ukraine with waves of fresh recruits, the immensity of the undertaking has inherent hurdles in terms of training, equipping and distributing fresh troops across multiple active fronts.

Some locals have also voiced their frustrations with the TRC and sometimes, the mobilization drive, in an April Kyiv Post report. In one instance, an interviewee also praised the effectiveness of recruitments from the brigade itself rather than TRCs.

“​​Examples of 3rd separate assault brigade show the recruitment, unlike the violent mobilization, [works], and [works] great. There [are] a lot of folks around willing to fight Russians directly, and they are willingly going to the local brigade’s recruiters,” he said.

In another Kyiv Post investigation, locals and veterans alike also discussed the pros and cons of the new mobilization drive. Some have praised the digitalization efforts though they also claimed that issues persist with the TRCs.