In another sign that the war is intensifying, and as Trump-backed peace talks have essentially collapsed, Ukraine is moving its military training facilities farther from the front lines in order to shield personnel from an increasing wave of Russian drone and missile strikes, the country’s top general has announced.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said the decision is intended to protect soldiers while maintaining the quality of combat training for new recruits, after several mass casualty strikes on such training facilities.

In some cases the Ukrainian public became outraged at how "out in the open" large groups of Ukrainian troops were training, leaving them exposed to the major missile or drone attacks which came, leaving scores dead and wounded.

For example this is precisely what happened in a strike on northeast Ukraine's Sumy region last May at a shooting range, where recruits were marching and exercising in formation, in broad daylight.

Russia's defense ministry at the time claimed the missile attack "killed up to 70 Ukrainian service members, including 20 instructors."

And then in June there were additional strikes on training sites in the Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava. Ukrainian media has indicated the latest incident took place in mid-September at Ukrainian Ground Forces training center, which was struck by two Iskander ballistic missiles, resulting in casualties.

"They are moving further as deep as the country as far as possible from the frontline," Gen. Syrskyi said. "In this regard, the task is to ensure high standards of training also in remote locations."

"The [Basic Combat Training Program] is now running 51 days, includes a course of anti-drone combat and other elements that meet the requirements of modern technological warfare," he detailed.

One chief concern is maintaining training sites which are 'winter-ready' - given many parts of the country are known to have harsh, snowy and freezing conditions for months.

"There was a constructive discussion on controlling the quality of training in training centers, optimizing their organizational structure, deployment of [Basic Combat Training Programs] in mechanized brigade funds, role of Army Corps in training, etc.," Syrskyi said further.

Russia has also long warned it could target any base where foreign troops are present; however, the bulk of training overseen by European allies has been taking place outside of the country.