In a clip shared on Twitter and in pro-Ukraine Telegram channels, a group of ten student soldiers in oversized helmets wielding AK-47s from the 1940s complain they’ve been ‘thrown into the s**t’.

One complains: ‘Know the truth! The Russian Ministry of Defence has no idea about us, or what we’re doing here.

‘We’ve been thrown into the s**t!’

Another adds: ‘Our rifles are from the 1940s! They don’t f***ing fire! They’re sending f***ing ordinary students into war’, according to The Times.

The boys, who are reportedly members of the 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, filmed themselves in the back of a lorry near Sumy, close to the border with Russia.