 Ukrainian Army is struggling to find new recruits to fight against Russian forces. After 22 months of war with a horrific human cost, the Ukrainian Army is struggling to find recruits to battle Russian forces that are once again on the offensive. Some Ukrainians who joined the fighting at the start in February 2022 are still in combat and exhausted, while volunteers to replace those killed or wounded are becoming rarer. Our units are understaffed. We need young, motivated people under 40. Major Alexander Volkov told AFP near the Russian-held frontline city of Bakhmut. The commander of a battalion of the 24th Mechanized Brigade opted to cancel an outdoor training session for new recruits because of frost, aiming to avoid injuries to his much-needed troops. Volkov noted that some people may have been misled into believing Ukraine's war effort was nearing victory even as concern grows in Kiev that Western patients and backing could be cracking. The current situation is not that simple, and we're doing everything we can to hold him back and beat him, he added. Despite Ukraine's summer counteroffensive that employed billions of dollars worth of Western weapons, the frontlines have barely shifted in over a year. Russian forces have gone back on the attack since the fall and were pressing to make gains especially in the east. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked at the start of December that the military command review the recruitment system.