Agreed it isn’t Chechnya or Syria. There the russkies were fighting mostly goat-herders, living in mud huts, and used to deprivation and living off the land. That actually made them much tougher to defeat.
Ukes are 2nd world Euro’s hoping for a western luxury lifestyle. Most of the population are apartment dwellers. Not really a good pool for large numbers of new recruits.
I’ve never been to Uke. Many places, some near there, but not actually Uke.
It’s apparent east Uke is mostly ethnic russian. It’s also apparent the further west you go, the less russian and more Uke it gets, and its nearly all Uke in the west. It’s also apparent that there is no clear demarcation line.
If you assume political allegiance is and should be based solely on ethnicity [like democrats do], any ‘insurgency’ will be rife with double agents.
And what do you do with the Uke residents who are ethnic russian? Do you want them hanged? Gassed? Shot? Cleansed?
C’mon, what’s your pithy, knee-jerk answer? Well geopolitical genius?
Ukraine has been fighting a war with Russia in the Donbass region since 2014. Many young men have done their military service during that time period, and a a good number of them have served in combat units.
There are an estimated 750,000 recent veterans in Ukraine, so finding people who have the knowledge and experience to serve in the military is not that hard.