Pro Russian social media accounts published a video they thought would portray the image of fresh soldiers in new gear fighting hard on the Kreminna, Luhansk front. However, the footage shows an entire squad of incompetent, poorly trained fighters ineffectively shooting their rifles into the air while using firing techniques usually only seen among equally ineffective African and Middle Eastern militaries.

In recent days, Russia has relaunched major offensives across much of eastern Ukraine, to include Kreminna. Ukrainian defenders in Kreminna have said the fighting is intense and constant, but have reportedly repeatedly pushed the Russians back while inflicting heavy casualties on the Russian units. If this video is any indication of the quality of Russian soldiers used in the fighting, it's not hard to see why the advances are failing. .

Many estimates suggest that Russia has lost over 100K troops so far in the year long conflict. Most of the actual trained soldiers would have been killed or wounded by now, and Russia is now relying on drafted civilians that have only been given a few weeks of low-quality training.

About the Author

Will Killmore

Will Killmore is a US Army combat infantry veteran and Purple Heart recipient. He has deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with the 172nd Stryker Brigade and 173rd Airborne Brigade. Following his time in service, he successfully pursued a certificate of journalism and has been a blogger for Funker530 since 2014.