Russia has a problem with its troops

 Business Insider:

A Ukraine war analyst told Business Insider that while watching this conflict, he's been continually surprised by how poorly trained Russia's soldiers are. Even when he thinks they can't get any worse, they somehow find a way.

"I find myself being surprised with the new depths of how poor the Russian individual soldier quality is," George Barros, a Russia analyst at the Insitute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said.

Each batch of new recruits gets progressively worse as Russia rushes them off to battle, he said. "It's becoming really difficult for me to see what other additional shortcuts they could take, other than maybe deploying just people unfit for service," such as people with disabilities or who are too old.

"But the bar is very, very low at this point," Barros said.

Captured Russian soldiers, war experts, Ukrainian troops, and Western intelligence have all pointed to Russian troops being poorly trained and treated as disposable throughout the war.

The poor training, coupled with the intensity of the war, has resulted in quick deaths: In October 2022, only one month after Russia announced a mobilization of 300,000 Russian citizens, some of those new soldiers were already dead, having only received days of training before being sent to Ukraine.

Russia's losses have risen recently as Russian troops continue to suffer from deficiencies in training.

US intelligence estimated in December that Russia had lost 87% of the troops it had before the start of its full-scale invasion, meaning it started the new year without the vast majority of its professional army, which had its own problems. It is now largely fighting with a replacement force that's been hastily thrown together.

Russia's losses, while they have been high since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, appear to have soared in recent months.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in July that more than 70,000 Russian troops were likely killed or wounded between May and June. It blamed "an effective Ukrainian defense and a lack of Russian training" as Russia fought in multiple sectors.
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The casualty rate of the Russians in this war is extremely high.  I suspect that is a result not only of the poor training of the troops but also the inept leadership of the military.  That is also a reflection of how poor Putin and his regime are when it comes to military operations.  It was a mistake for Russia to go to war with Ukraine, to begin with.  Ukraine was never a military threat to Russia and Russia is seen as a much weaker power now as a result of its inept operations in Ukraine.