“I feel like I escaped from hell, but the guys who replaced us last time got into even more hell than us.

“But the next rotation is due. My time to cross the river again is soon.”

Another soldier said: “Several brigades were supposed to be posted here, not individual companies – we just don’t have enough men.

“There are a lot of young guys among us. We need people, but trained people, not the green ones we have there now. There are guys who had spent just three weeks in training, and only managed to shoot a few times.

“It’s a total nightmare. A year ago, I wouldn’t have said that, but now, sorry, I’m fed up.

“Everyone who wanted to volunteer for war came a long time ago – it’s too hard now to tempt people with money. Now we’re getting those who didn’t manage to escape the draft. You’ll laugh at this, but some of our marines can’t even swim.”

A third said there was “a real lack of drinking water” and that many Ukrainian soldiers felt “that the command simply abandoned us.”

As the Ukrainians run low on ammunition, the US has provided some bad news for the men on the battlefield.

The White House has said it is “out of money and nearly out of time” to provide more weapons to Ukraine

Shalanda Young, director of the office of management and budget, wrote in a letter seen by The Hill: “I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from US military stocks.”