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KYIV, Ukraine, July 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Ukrainian military recruit shot dead two instructors at a training centre in the north of the country, police said Thursday.

The incident, which occurred on Wednesday, highlighted the divisiveness of army recruitment and mobilisation in Ukraine, which is struggling to attract soldiers more than three years into the Russian invasion.

"Yesterday, the police received information that during shooting practice at a training centre, a cadet fired shots from an automatic weapon at military instructors. As a result of their wounds, the two soldiers died," the police in the northern Chernigiv region said in a statement.

The cadet was detained and is facing up to 15 years in prison.

Russia and Ukraine have sustained heavy losses -- estimated by Western intelligence and independent analysts to be well into the tens of thousands on each side -- through more than three years of gruelling warfare.

Mobilisation is unpopular in Ukraine, where military-age men are blocked from leaving the country and face being drafted to the front.