Give weapons to youth leader leaving soldiers (3)
I believe the answer is:
arm
'give weapons' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'youth leader leaving soldiers' is the wordplay.
'youth leader' becomes 'y' (I've seen this in other clues).
'leaving' is a deletion indicator.
'soldiers' becomes 'army' (group of soldiers).
'army' with 'y' removed is 'ARM'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for arm that I've seen before include "Upper limb" , "Shoulder-to-wrist member" , "5 [BRANCH]" , "Limb or branch" , "Maybe rifle" .)