Ukraine to train 40,000 inexperienced soldiers for new brigades • Poland to deliver six more MiG combat aircraft to Ukraine

Ukraine has begun training 40,000 inexperienced recruits for new combat brigades. The Reuters news agency reported that the soldiers may be preparing for a possible counterattack, although the Ministry of Defense has not yet released any information on this matter.

The large-scale recruitment campaign of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has already started last February. Citizens were invited to join the combat brigade via billboards and social media. Most of the new volunteers have no military experience, and about 2.5 percent of them are women.

According to the ministry, training new recruits takes an average of four months. After that, the new brigades will fight alongside the regular forces. This is necessary, according to the ministry, because thousands of soldiers were killed around Bashmoyet, among other things.

Unlike the regular army, the battalions will not be under the Ministry of Defense but rather the Ministry of the Interior. This also applies to the so-called Azov regiment, which last year held out against the Russian army for a long time at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Eva Silderbeck