The commander is known by the callsign "Krupol". His battalion, belonging to the 46th Air Assault Brigade, defended Bakhmut and was practically wiped out. At the beginning of the war, his battalion consisted of 500 men, all of whom have since been injured or killed, Krupol told the Washington Times. He is the last professional in his unit. The battalion was repeatedly replenished, but the newly drafted soldiers were poorly trained. Krupol complained that men who could neither fire a rifle nor throw a hand grenade were sent to him.

"The most valuable thing in war is combat experience," Krupol said. "A soldier who has survived six months of combat and a soldier who comes out of a firing range are two different soldiers. It's heaven and earth." "And there are only a few soldiers with combat experience. Unfortunately, they are all already dead or wounded."

"I'm getting 100 new soldiers," he told the newspaper. "They don't give me time to prepare them. They say: 'Take them into battle.'" The recruits are not prepared for the fights: "They just drop everything and run away. That's it. Do you understand why? A soldier doesn't shoot. I ask him why and he says, 'I'm afraid of the sound of the shot.' And for some reason he's never thrown a grenade. ... We need NATO instructors in all our training centers and our instructors need to be sent into the trenches because they failed in their job."

These are stories that have so far only been known from the side of the Russian invaders. In addition to the training deficits, there is a lack of ammunition at the front. Even rifle ammunition and mortar shells would be missing. "We're on the front line. They're coming at us and we have nothing to shoot with."

Krupol wanted to wake up the army leadership with his frank words. Instead, he was immediately demoted. He is said to have left the military now.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian military said he had "spread false information". "The casualties reported in the unit he commanded are grossly exaggerated."

Both sides exaggerate their opponent's losses and downplay their own. For Kyiv, this version is crucial. The smaller country can only endure the war of attrition against Russia if the Russians suffer disproportionately higher losses than the Ukrainians.

Quelle: Washington Post