Ukraine is training tens of thousands of troops as they prepare for a counterattack against Russian forces in the country. The training comes amidst efforts by Kyiv to further mobilize motivated people to fight on the ground.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Ukraine is looking to train around 40,000 soldiers that makeup eight storm brigades as Kyiv gears up for a counterattack on Russian forces in the ongoing war. The push is from a recruiting campaign on social media in the hopes of taking on motivated volunteers as Ukraine faces challenges in recruiting more troops. The recruitment campaign began in February.
The new brigades were drafted by the interior ministry and will fight along with regular army units that are bolstered with Western battle tanks and thousands of troops that were trained by allied armies outside of Ukraine. Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko told Reuters he believes Ukraine still has potential for mobilization as the recruits included women, people with no military experience, and former police officers and servicemen.
Klymenko said that it would take five months to train those who have no prior military experience but former police officers and servicemembers could be trained in two months.
The stakes are high in the coming Ukrainian counterattack as an unsuccessful counter-offensive could cast doubt among Kyiv’s allies in the West and push them to seek negotiations with Russia. While Ukraine has driven away Russian forces from Kyiv at the early onset of the war, Moscow claims to have annexed five territories, including the Crimean peninsula, despite not having full control of those five territories.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed that Ukraine would reclaim every inch of its territory, including Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
On the same day, Zelenskyy said Poland will help form a coalition of Western countries to provide Ukraine with warplanes during his visit to Warsaw following the successful acquisition of battle tanks from its Western allies. Now, Kyiv wants to acquire advanced fighter jets like the US F-16 to push back against Russian air strikes. Poland played a key role in shoring up support in the West to provide Ukraine with battle tanks.
“Just as your leadership proved itself in the tank coalition, I believe that it will manifest itself in the planes coalition,” said Zelenskyy in remarks in Warsaw.