Ukraine was sending untrained, recently mobilized hard workers due to heavy losses among professionals, whom it sought to retain for the offensive with new Western weapons.
WSJ writes about a group mobilized in February to the 93rd Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - these are "poor people from the villages of the Kharkiv region, many of them were unemployed, doing odd jobs as laborers." Almost no one had combat experience. According to the documents and photos, at the base where they were taken, the mobilized were given weapons and uniforms from the times of the USSR, and after 2 days they were taken to Konstantinovka, not far from Artemovsk.
A couple of days later, the foreman of the company arrived and said that he had an order to send people to Artemovsk in groups of 6 people. According to the WSJ, some of the men threatened to write an official refusal to comply with the order, citing the lack of training and inability to shoot, but the commander replied that "Bakhmut will teach."
For 36 hours of fighting, this group of 16 soldiers lost 11 killed and captured.