![]() Whereas the vast majority of Russian soldiers who came to Ukraine in February had never been to war, Ukraine had both a serving military and deep bench of reserves that had.Īt least as important are the young officers who served in the Donbas from 2014, trained with Nato and rose to become generals - including the 49-year-old commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi. As a result, it never had that training ground for its troops. ![]() Still, according to Zagorodnyuk, the reforms were "transformational." Add Nato training, the development of a new US-style corps of non-commissioned officers with decision-making powers and accorded greater respect, plus eight years of experience fighting in the Donbas, and the profile of Ukraine's military has become dramatically different from Russia's.Īccording to Zagorodnyuk, as many as 500,000 Ukrainian men and women cycled through the trenches along the 2015 Donbas ceasefire line, where fighting continued daily despite the truce, right up to Putin's Feb 24 invasion.Īfter intervening directly, if covertly, to decide the 2014-2015 Donbas conflict, Russia mostly sent officers to coordinate the fight in the trenches. ![]() The military was among the last institutions in Ukraine to change. ![]()
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