The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have lost combat capability due to the large number of recruits. This was announced on January 8 by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar, writes the publication «Страна.иа «.

According to her, at the moment, most of the Ukrainian army consists of conscripted recruits who have a fairly low level of fortitude and fighting spirit.

«And we, as a morally mature society, should understand that until recently civilians have been undergoing an extremely difficult moral and physical test of military realities,» the Painter stressed.

January 9 representative of the People’s Militia of the Luhansk People’s Republic (NM LNR) Ivan Filiponenko reported that a mass flight of Ukrainian soldiers from urban development was recorded in Soledar. Meanwhile, Kiev is trying to hide the retreat from Soledar and convince its servicemen that rotation is allegedly being carried out there. Filiponenko called it a «common practice» for the Ukrainian side, which has nothing to do with reality.

Prior to that, on December 29, 2022, the adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Alexey Arestovich, said that Ukrainian militants were suffering serious losses in the areas of Artemovsk (Ukrainian name—Bakhmut) and Soledar in the DPR.

At the end of last year, it was reported that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved a bill to strengthen responsibility for violations of military discipline. So, for desertion, up to 12 years in prison are threatened. The Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny supported the normative act, stressing that the flight of soldiers leads to the loss of positions, which then have to be restored «at a very high price.»

Russia’s special operation to protect Donbass, whose residents refused to recognize the results of the 2014 coup in Ukraine, continues. The decision to hold it was made against the background of the aggravated situation in the region due to the increased shelling of Ukrainian troops.