I remember sitting around on piquet on an exercise back in about 2006. 4am and raining. The other guy I knew only slightly, I've forgotten his family name, but his first name was Igor. His brother was in as well, thats why we were on first names.

"Igor", I said, "What was it like doing your National Service in the Russian army?".

He didn't say anything for about three minutes. I wondered if I'd offended him.

Finally he said "In the Russian army... you do a lot of digging." Heavy Russian accent, and spoken with an enormous finality. Can easily recall the moment, even now :D

Yeah, the Russian govt doesn't like to spend money, but their soldiers get very good at field fortification. There's bullying, there's drunkeness. Zero OH&S. Maybe not quite zero, they do teach them how to lift safely, which is more than the Israelis do. (Srsly...). But stuff gets done, steadily and unimaginatively.

I'm sure the Ukrainian army is exactly the same.