Russia-backed conscripts in Ukraine are so ill equipped that they're using decades-old rifles and forced to drink pond water, report says

• Conscripts fighting alongside Russia in eastern Ukraine are very ill equipped, sources there told Reuters.
• Donbas conscripts were issued decades-old rifles, with one saying they were like "World War Two muskets."

Russia-backed military conscripts in Ukraine's Donbas region have been so ill equipped that they are using decades-old rifles and are forced to drink untreated pond water, Reuters reported.

Reuters spoke to six people in Donbas — a person close to Donbas leadership helping arrange supplies for the forces, a student conscript, three wives of conscripts, and the acquaintance of another conscript — to get a picture of a force struggling with inadequate resources.

The student conscript told Reuters that he had to drink from a pond because he was not supplied with any water.

"We drank water with dead frogs in it," he said. Two other sources told Reuters that conscripts had to drink untreated water.

Three people who saw the conscripts using weapons also told Reuters that some conscripts have been given Mosin rifles, which were developed in the late 19th century and went out of production decades ago.

The student conscript said he saw two people with the Mosin, and told Reuters: "It's like we're fighting with World War Two muskets."

Some of the conscripts also appeared badly trained for fighting, with one student conscript telling Reuters: "I don't even know how to fire an automatic weapon."

"Supplies for the soldiers right now are a disaster," the source who is close to Donbas leadership told Reuters.

Reuters said the Kremlin and Donbas authorities did not reply to its questions about supplies for the conscripts.

The armed forces in Donbas is separate to Russia's military, but is fighting alongside it. Multiple reports and Western intelligence say the Russian military is struggling with low morale and poor logistics.

The Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, has been the site of war between Russia and Ukraine for years before Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine in February.

It is home to the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Russia recognized as independent states days before it invaded Ukraine.

As Insider's Sarah Al-Arshani and John Haltiwanger previously reported, the Donbas conflict claimed over 13,000 lives before February's invasion began and Kremlin-backed rebels controlled roughly one-third of the Donbas.