Ukraine trains forty thousand storm brigade troops for a counter-offensive. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Aleks, a translator with no military experience, was preparing to ambush enemy soldiers in one of Ukraine’s newest military battalions.
Ukraine plans to utilize Border of Steel, one of eight new storm brigades with 40,000 soldiers, in a counter-offensive against Russian occupiers.
“I want the war to be over as soon as possible and I hope the strike brigade will make it happen a lot faster,” Aleks told Reuters inside a covert Ukrainian training center.
He withheld his surname for security.
Social media and billboard campaigns to recruit highly motivated volunteers have helped the units.
Kyiv may have trouble recruiting fresh troops.
In eastern cities like Bakhmut, thousands of its men have been killed fighting Russian forces for months. Kyiv conceals military losses.
The Interior Ministry-drafted brigades will fight alongside conventional army units boosted by Western battle tanks and hundreds of new troops trained by ally armies outside Ukraine.
The brigades include Hurricane, Spartan, Chervona Kalyna, Frontier, Rage, Azov, and Kara Dag.
According to Reuters, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko recruited women, non-military persons, and former police and troops.
Kyiv’s counterattack is crucial.
Key Western allies may persuade Kyiv to negotiate with Moscow if a deadly attempt to reclaim land from Russian forces fails.
Ukraine liberated the northeast and southern Kherson area last year after defeating Russian forces from Kyiv. However, Russia controls the east, south, and Crimean peninsula.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wants all of Ukraine back from Moscow, which has unilaterally declared five areas of Ukraine to be part of Russia despite not governing them.
“For them, the objective is to liberate Ukraine,” Klymenko said in Kyiv. “We are writing the great history of our state for many future decades.”
“I Want Revenge”
Beginning in February, Ukraine recruited storm battalions.
Klymenko said individuals without experience would take four months to train, but ex-police or troops would take two.
On March 24, Border of Steel fighters practiced target practice, drone flying, and injured soldier evacuation in a secret location.
Hassid, a shooting instructor, said the recruits were enthusiastic and learning swiftly.
Valeriy Padytel, who led Ukraine’s border guard forces in Mariupol’s defense, commands Border of Steel. September’s prisoner swap liberated him.
He didn’t provide Ukraine’s counter-offensive date or location. While the brigade is being constituted and we await fighting orders, we will train.
The Interior Ministry oversees the brigades and other troops like the Azov Regiment, which made headlines last year by holding out at the Azovstal steel factory in besieged Mariupol.
Klymenko said 2.5% of brigades had female fighters: “Our women are patriotic enough, strong and they hate the enemy no less than men, they want to serve.”
According to the recruit, Vakha, 21, was recruited into the army but requested a transfer to the Border of Steel.
He claimed the training would speed up travel to the east, where the combat is fiercest.
Dmytro, a combatant who worked in a currency exchange office, joined the brigade for revenge and frontline warfare.
Last year, he joined the army and was ordered to protect the Ukrainian border with Transdniestria, where a small Russian detachment is stationed, but no conflicts have occurred.
As harsh as it seems in the 21st century, I joined even more because I wanted revenge. “We must avenge our people and the murdered children,” he declared.
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