BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the previous 72 hours, the menacing whirr above our heads has belonged to Russia\u2019s suicide drones, passing over and then bearing down on their targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the buzz comes from a Ukrainian unmanned aircraft which has not been sent up to kill, but to relay footage from the training ground to commanders back at base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve been brought to a secret training location in the Chernihiv region where the latest army intake is being fast tracked to the battlefield in the renewed effort to blunt Moscow\u2019s grinding advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the hail of machine gun fire and instructors\u2019 commands, the most striking aspect of the scene is the age of the new recruits. Most seem to be in their 40s and 50s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the grey-haired contingent, Rostyslav, whose wife and two children are waiting for him back home in the Odesa region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A month ago he was a driver. Next month he could find himself fighting on Russian soil, with Ukraine vowing to hold on to the land it seized in the Kursk region during its lighting incursion a month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think this is the right thing to do,\u201d he says of the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLook how long they\u2019ve been on our land. We\u2019ve been suffering for so long, we have to do something. You can’t just sit there while they are capturing our territory. What will we do then? Will we become their slaves?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The training schedule we\u2019re witnessing reflects the accelerated programme new army joiners are undergoing as Ukraine tries to deal with the sheer mass of men Russia is committing to the frontline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry of Defence in London estimated there were 70,000 Russian casualties in Ukraine in May and June alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: For the previous 72 hours, the menacing whirr above our heads has belonged to Russia\u2019s suicide drones, passing over and then bearing down on their targets. Now the buzz comes from a Ukrainian unmanned aircraft which has not been sent up to kill, but to relay footage from the training ground to commanders back at base. We\u2019ve been brought to a secret training location in the Chernihiv region where the latest army intake is being fast tracked to the battlefield in the renewed effort to blunt Moscow\u2019s grinding advance. In the hail of machine gun fire and instructors\u2019 commands,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41812,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41810\/revisions\/41812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}