A Marine special-operations veteran training Ukrainians to fight explains how they've been able to fend off Russia's invasion

• Since Russia launched its attack on February 24, countries around the world have rushed to help.

• Veterans from those countries have gone to help train Ukrainian forces.

• One of those training efforts is being led by a US Marine Corps veteran.

Moscow has failed to achieve any of its primary objectives as the war in Ukraine nears the three-month mark. Russian forces have suffered a lot of losses and have focused their efforts on a small part of eastern Ukraine.

The US and other countries have sent billions of dollars in military, economic, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military has been helped by foreigners. The Mozart Group, which is composed mainly of special-operations veterans, is led by Andy Milburn, who retired from the US Marine Corps after 31 years.

The first Marine to lead a special-operations task force in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was the deputy commander of US Special Operations Command Central.

The Mozart Group is looking for additional members and funds to support its operations in Ukraine. The Mozart Group is in Ukraine to increase the Ukrainian military's capability and sustainable capacity in a way that is consistent with US foreign policy and to protect vulnerable civilians.

The Mozart Group members are not directly involved in the fighting, but they have seen action in self-defense, which complies with the US Neutrality Act.

In an interview with Insider, Milburn talked about his experiences in the US military, as well as how his group is training Ukrainians.

When you arrived in Ukraine, what kind of skills and capabilities were the Ukrainian forces you encountered in need of?

They needed basic skills, from weapons-handling to zeroing their weapons and marksmanship to squad movement.

Although many had seen combat before, it was very much a come-as-you-are party with the Territorial Defense and evenUkrainian special-operations force units rushing personnel to the fight with little to no training.

Medical training is important. Their basic medical skills are not as good as those of their British and US counterparts.

As the fighting has gone on, has there been a change in the Ukrainians' needs and/or the training you've been able to provide them?

Their needs have not changed because they are constantly dealing with a large number of new soldiers. The skills we teach are not always practiced on the line.

Since we now have more time to train, we have brought in specialists to teach drones and anti-tank guided missiles.

In areas where Ukrainians have fended off the Russian offensive, what do you think has allowed them to be successful?

The terrain has been an important factor in allowing Ukrainian forces to hold their ground.

The Russian proclivity to remain on the roads has hurt the north and urban regions. Outside the cities in the north, the ground is either thickly wooded or swampy, and this has allowed the defenders to strike armored columns from the flank.

What's your assessment of the Russian military's performance so far? Is there anything it did well, and to what would you attribute its struggles?

The Russian units here have not been very good. They are poorly trained and ill-disciplined. Their tactics have little understanding of combined arms and no infantry integration with their armored attacks.

Many of them appear to be wearing Soviet-era uniforms, as their equipment is poor and they are prone to erupt into flames from high-explosive missiles.

I am told that the reforms Putin announced after the poor showing of the Russian Army in Georgia were doomed to corruption.

One Ukrainian who lived in Russian for 20 years called the dregs of society to fill the ranks of its army because anyone with education, influence or money is able to escape military service.

How does the fighting in Ukraine compare to the combat you experienced in the US military? In your mind, is the US military prepared for the kind of war being fought in Ukraine?

It really doesn't compare. Combat experience is a relative term in the US military, and there is a tendency to overplay it.

Few in the US military have experienced the intensity of combat experienced by the Ukrainians. The only exception for me was the battle of Fallujah because of my dislike for dark, closed spaces and the people who were in them.

If you are sitting in the basement of a half-demolished house waiting for the first Russian foot soldier to come, you are well within range of the enemy's weapons.

The Ukrainians are mostly humble enough to realize that experiences like that are not enough to make proficient soldiers. The Ukrainian infantry had to learn on the job.

I spoke to a student who was struggling to work the safety catch on his AK-47 and was told by his platoon commander to use the grenades.

The US military is not prepared for other reasons. The Ukrainian soldier understands the importance of the kill chain in modern warfare, the need to establish stand-off with your adversary, in a way that his US counterpart does not.

What, if anything, about the war do you think has been overlooked or misconstrued in Western reporting on it?

The US needs to stop shuffling its support because of an exaggerated fear of a Ukrainian victory.

The US policy in this area is incoherent, we are either providing lethal aid or not. The red line is not whether we have US contractors in country to oversee the distribution of logistics according to priorities or whether we provide the Ukrainians with long-range strike drones.

Is the Mozart Group making a difference downrange?

It is hard for me to say with certainty that we are. Although limited in scope, our efforts are having an effect. Even though we don't represent the US government, our Ukrainian partners seem to be reassured to have us here.

A defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran, and a graduate of the University of Baltimore, are some of the things that Stavros Atlamazoglou is.

The original article is on Business Insider.