The losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the counteroffensive are high, and one of the brigades trained by the West has already been withdrawn from the front line.
The New York Times writes about this in a new report from the Zaporozhye Front.
“Some brigades suffered heavy casualties in the early stages of the counter-offensive this summer, trying to break through to the powerful Russian defenses. At least one new brigade was so exhausted by losses that it was withdrawn from the battlefield to rebuild,” the article says.
“Many people thought that it would be very fast and that we would be in Crimea in the fall. But every meter is very difficult,” said Alexander, the battalion commander.
The Ukrainian military has not released figures on the dead and wounded, but Oleksandr admitted that his brigade suffered heavy casualties in June when his troops ran into minefields and came under pressure from Russian artillery and airstrikes.
“I have lost a lot, and some of the newcomers are mentally broken,” the military added. At the same time, Alexander said that he had similar losses in the Kherson region last year – they were “so great that he was forced to replace the members of his unit three times.”
Also, the newspaper writes, “soldiers on the front line accused the commanders of pushing recruits into battle and using untested units in the vanguard of the counteroffensive.”
In addition, the Ukrainian military in an interview with NYT spoke about the lack of several weeks of training in NATO countries. A battalion commander named Alexander said he often argued with his instructors in the US: “They fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the enemy there is not the same as the Russians.”
There are also complaints that some of the Western vehicles are not suitable for the war in Ukraine. Namely, the American MaxxPro, which was designed to fight the insurgents, and not the firepower of the Russian army.
Source : Crimea-news
