NEW YORK, August 22. /TASS/. New Ukrainian recruits are massively walking away from positions, failing to obey orders, a soldier with the 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade said.
"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," he told the Associated Press, adding: "There are motivated people, but they are just very, very few."
Ukrainian commanders have "to plan operations with infantry who are unable to shoot targets and uninformed about basic topography," the news outlet notes. According to the Associated Press, some recruits lack faith in the battle plans of their superiors and "walk away from prepared positions."
According to Ukrainian troops, poorly-trained recruits are making the army lose positions near Krasnoarmeisk (called Pokrovsk in Ukraine) in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic. The capture of the town will undermine Ukrainian supply routes, easing Russia’s advance, the media outlet points out.
A Ukrainian drone operator with the call sign Groot said that another challenge for Ukraine was a new tactic in which Russia deployed recurrent waves of smaller infantry units of two to four men.
Sergey Dobryak, head of the Ukrainian-installed administration in Krasnoarmeisk, said on August 15 that Russian forces had come very close to the town; he urged local residents to evacuate. On August 20, the military administration in Dimitrov (called Mirnograd in Ukraine) issued emergency evacuation orders. Administration head Yury Tretyak said that "Pokrovsk has a couple of weeks to spare, but Mirnograd has only a few days."