British military leaders are considering sending small groups of trainers to western Ukraine, two people familiar with the talks told reporters.
This would help solve some of the logistical problems of training Ukrainian soldiers in the UK and save money, they said. Before sending recruits to the eastern front, instructors would give them intensive basic training.
The commanders fighting in this area have repeatedly complained that some of the recruits accepted during the mobilization that began in May do not have even basic fighting skills and are afraid to pick up a weapon. According to their calculations, 50-70 percent recruits are killed or injured within the first few days after reaching the front line.
Sending instructors to Ukraine, rather than holding classes at British military bases, would be “cheaper for us and better for them”, a UK defense source told the publication.
“We could do the training there faster, and it would be very far from the front line, in uninhabited areas, so the risk would be much lower.”
According to a Ukrainian military source, changing the training country would send a “strong military and political signal” to other countries and to Russia itself. It would also mark the start of a “de facto” deployment of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine and would be a “powerful deterrent”.
Earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron was the first Western leader to propose sending NATO troops to Ukraine. After stormy debates, this initiative went to waste, but British military instructors may soon come to Ukraine to train the soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces on the spot, according to the British publication “The Times”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyi/Telegram/War in Ukraine
British military leaders are considering sending small groups of trainers to western Ukraine, two people familiar with the talks told reporters.
This would help solve some of the logistical problems of training Ukrainian soldiers in the UK and save money, they said. Before sending recruits to the eastern front, instructors would give them intensive basic training.
The commanders fighting in this area have repeatedly complained that some of the recruits accepted during the mobilization that began in May do not have even basic fighting skills and are afraid to pick up a weapon. According to their calculations, 50-70 percent recruits are killed or injured within the first few days after reaching the front line.
Sending instructors to Ukraine, rather than holding classes at British military bases, would be “cheaper for us and better for them”, a UK defense source told the publication.
“We could do the training there faster, and it would be very far from the front line, in uninhabited areas, so the risk would be much lower.”
According to a Ukrainian military source, changing the training country would send a “strong military and political signal” to other countries and to Russia itself. It would also mark the start of a “de facto” deployment of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine and would be a “powerful deterrent”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyi/Telegram/War in Ukraine
In addition, Ukrainian soldiers could share combat experience with the British, and the latter could test new weapons developed during the conflict, the source said.
The news about the preparation of such a plan was heard during the third meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
President of Ukraine in July spoke to the newly formed cabinet in London, Sept. spoke with K. Starmer in the United States at the UN General Assembly, and on Thursday arrived at Number 10 Downing Street for new negotiations.
Zelenskyi embarked on a trip to four major European countries – Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain – after Joe Biden’s scheduled Saturday summit of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group at the Ramstein base in Germany was canceled.
The meeting in London was also attended by the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, British Defense Secretary John Healey, K. Starmer’s national security advisor Tim Barrow and Chief of Defense Staff Admiral Anthony Radakin.
Volodymyr Zelensky/Telegram/UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
A month ago, J. Healey and his aides prepared a plan according to which this year 650 missiles of various purposes will be allocated to the Ukrainian air defense system and the extension of the Ukrainian military training program “Operation Interflex”.
Already 45 thousand Ukrainian soldiers were trained by British instructors, and now this program will continue until 2025. In total, since the beginning of the large-scale war, more than 100 thousand Ukrainian soldiers participated in military training abroad, mainly in the United Kingdom, Poland, France and Germany.
Source: www.15min.lt
