Humiliating pictures have emerged showing newly mobilized soldiers being sent to the war in Ukraine as Moscow continues to lose ground on the battlefield.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has ordered the mobilisation of 300,000 extra soldiers to the frontline and in a frenzied bid to stop his army collapsing amid Ukraine’s lightning counterattack, he appears to have picked civilians with little training to go to war.
Pictures from Sevastopol in Crimea have emerged showing the new recruits clutching shiny new weapons but many of the men appeared old and not in the top physical shape usually associated with fighters as they paraded in Nakhimov Square.
The mobilised men are reportedly expected to receive only two weeks of training before being shipped off to Ukraine – compared to the six months minimum training, any professional army undertakes before deployment to a battlefield.
Russia invaded its neigbor Ukraine on February 24 claiming it wanted to rid the country of neo-nazis and change its government in Kyiv. It has failed so far in its plan to topple Ukranian leadership and President Putin recently threatened use of nuclear weapons as he continues to falter in his battle of the Southern and Eastern region of Ukraine known as the Donbass .