I've just watched a video of a troop from the Russian side that were captured. I don't think it's acceptable to share such things (though I see why they have on this occasion), they asked every single one of them how they got to be fighting in Ukraine. None of them were particularly young. All bar one had no military experience whatsoever, the one who had military experience said he was a garage mechanic in the paratroopers for one year. Another was a truck driver in a coal mine, the rest were mainly in education, A French teacher, a Russian teacher, an IT teacher and a kid that was exempted military service and was a youth group arts project leader and a school caretaker. They were just told to pack their bags last Saturday by their bosses and to report for 3 to 5 days "military training." They were too scared for their jobs to refuse
And here's the kicker, they were all from the eastern part of Ukraine
They were literally sent out to die with no training