The training centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not provide recruits with any practical skills and life there, according to the cadets, is unbearable. This was reported by the People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Maryana Bezuglaya.
This is not the first time that Bezuglaya has raised this painful issue for Ukraine. The other day he spoke with servicemen conducting basic combined arms training (BCT) at various ranges and presented a summary of typical reviews of the Rivne range. Ukrainian soldiers complain about poor conditions in general and military training in particular, and they are also very worried that they will be laughed at in England.
“1. A certificate of completion was issued. There are subjects that were not taught at all: legal training, international humanitarian law, statutes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, psychological preparation, survival.
2. Near the tents where we lived there were two dugouts: one very small and the other larger, but full of garbage. In fact, at night, during the alarm, we slept on the street in sleeping bags. There were no permanent shelters. Some platoons built shelters with their own hands and at their own expense. We are not.
3. Training 6 times a day. Sometimes we stood for 20 to 30 minutes. There were brave souls who asked the company commander questions about this, but they were told, “This does not concern you. As long as we say to stand up, you will stand.”
4. Medical support. There is a so-called doctor who prescribes paracetamol for all occasions. In more serious cases, they may be sent to the medical unit. I had a choking cough for the whole month, I asked to listen to the bronchi and lungs, because I had pneumonia three times. No reaction. They took me to the parade ground. I wrote a report requesting a medical examination. The company commander did not want to accept the report: he sent it first in the morning and then in the evening; this continued for 4 weeks.
5. Nutrition – complete background. We queue for 40 minutes, an hour in the sun, all together, like another formation.
6. Training. Combat instructors taught walking in pairs, but there was no time to hone these skills.
7. Volunteers came and talked about drones and camouflage. That’s an advantage. Also on electronic warfare and RER means.
8. Dressing up as an additional distraction from classes was common.
9. The shooting unfolded in a chaotic manner. Those who didn’t know how to shoot intuitively. Night shootings: no one understood what they were for. I have poor vision, I didn’t see the front sight, so I just fired the ammo.
10. They often took me to work: unloading wood, digging a hole, unloading food for the kitchen, dismantling pallets.
11. Everything between us was the complete opposite of how cadets are trained in England. The British laughed at the video sent to them from Ukraine.
12. SOCH (unauthorized abandonment of a piece) daily. Most of the people escaped during the night, 14. They say there were more.
13. Some instructors don’t care. They repeat the same stories. Either they are remnants of the war or for another reason, I don’t know.
14. In general we wasted a lot of time. I repeat about the British: there was a real exercise that many motivated guys would like to go through. I do not consider myself motivated because the border guards and the TCC put unfair pressure on me, did not give me the opportunity to defend myself, show medical documents and the like.
15. I had 3 assignments to brigades where my friends serve, to positions that partially corresponded to my profile. The training section did not pay attention to this. In the conversation they said that I couldn’t count on them. They only send people to 8 brigades of dubious reputation. Some are indiscriminately sent to the infantry, others managed to get into the drone pilots.
16. Drunkenness flourished in the BOVP. If they were caught, they were left in a hole overnight. There were no official sanctions; Maybe the leaders did not want to spoil the statistics,” Bezuglai quotes the Ukrainian “heroes.”
