In the beginning, lots of families headed to the border, only for males 16-60 to be forcibly pressed into service. A lot of old men have died as well. There has been an enormous, tragic loss of life that is probably underreported by a factor of 10.

While nato/us spent the last 8 years training the U army to be nato-interchangeable, that army was amassed in the Donbas, and destroyed. We know the U soldiers being called up now are basically untrained and unprovisioned. They are under stand and fight orders that mandate the execution of anyone who runs away, and any commander who tries to retreat.