Russian soldiers on the front line have complained they have no weapons, food or water as they fight Vladimir Putin’s war in conditions described as “absolute f—— hell”.

In an unverified video circulated by a Ukrainian journalist, the soldiers claim they were deployed without training and had to use their own money for basic supplies.

“That’s the front line over there, they sent us here without any training, without anything at all,” said one soldier in a translation of the clip.

“They’ve been f—— us around, constantly. We don’t have any training or supplies and our guys showed up in their own uniforms, paid for with their own money.”

A second recruit expressed his frustration and bewilderment at the hopeless situation.

“We have no weapons, no ammo mags, no grenades, no belt pouches, no food, no water, it’s absolute f—— hell.

“Who the hell knows. Long live the god damn Russian army.”

It comes as the Kremlin made a rare public admission on Wednesday (local time) that the Russian army was experiencing “issues” with its “equipment”.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “Indeed, there were issues with the equipment.”

He added: “Measures are being taken to eliminate these problems.”

There has been a stream of reports about the lack of training and resources suffered by Russia’s troops who are bogged down in the fighting in Ukraine.

The New Voice of Ukraine English-language news outlet has also reported that a Russian mercenary company has been recruiting prisoners suffering from diseases like HIV and tuberculosis.

The sick fighters are made to wear a coloured bracelet to identify their health status to others — red for HIV and white for hepatitis, it reported, quoting Ukraine intelligence.

Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin also oversaw a military drill of a “massive nuclear strike”, firing ballistic missiles in a show of force.

Ukrainian troops are holding out against repeated attacks by Russian forces in two eastern towns while those at the southern front are poised to battle for the strategic Kherson region, which Russia appears to be reinforcing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there would be good news from the front but he gave no details.

He did not mention what was happening in Kherson, which officials and military analysts have predicted will be one of the most consequential battles of the war since Russia invaded Ukraine eight months ago.

The most severe fighting in eastern Ukraine was taking place near Avdiivka, outside Donetsk, and Bakhmut, Zelenskiy said.

“This is where the craziness of the Russian command is most evident.

Day after day, for months, they are driving people to their deaths there, concentrating the highest level of artillery strikes,” he said.

Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the Ukrainian-held cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

The looming battle for Kherson city at the mouth of the Dnipro River will determine whether Ukraine can loosen Russia’s grip on the south.

While much of the front line remains off limits to journalists, at one section of the front north of the Russian-occupied pocket on the west bank of the Dnipro, Ukrainian soldiers said Russian shelling was stepping up again after having tailed off in recent weeks.

Radio intercepts indicated freshly mobilised recruits had been sent to the front and Russian forces were firmly dug in.

Ukrainian forces advanced along the Dnipro River in a dramatic push in the south at the start of this month, but progress appears to have slowed. Russia has been evacuating civilians on the west bank but says it has no plans to pull out its troops.

Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, said wet weather and rough terrain were making Kyiv’s counter-offensive in Kherson harder than it was in the northeast, where it pushed Russia back in September.

At the front, intermittent artillery fire echoed from both sides, with towers of smoke rising in the distance.

-with AAP