Ukrainian War Training Reflects New Battlefield Realities

The brutality of the battlefield is reflected in training in hopes it will help more Ukrainian soldiers survive - and then win. JL 

The BBC reports:

Ukrainian volunteers sleep outside in cold, wet dugouts, learn military tactics and first aid, receive weapons training and practise trench warfare. And they’re asked if they’re mentally prepared to fight - and even to die. Over five weeks in the countryside in the north of England, Ukrainian men - who just days before led normal lives as florists, welders and jewellers - learn how to kill and survive on the battlefield. "I don't know when the war will end, but I'm sure we will win. It's only a question of time and how many people will die. I hope I will survive, but the chances are not so big, that's the truth. It's not hard, if you know what you're fighting for."

"It's, emotionally, very hard. I cry every time they leave. I cry every time they go into the bus."

Aliia, 32, is a linguist who translates the orders of British military trainers as they prepare Ukrainian volunteers for deadly combat against Russian troops.

Over five weeks in the countryside in the north of England, Ukrainian men - who just days before led normal lives as florists, welders and jewellers - learn how to kill and survive on the battlefield.

The course is based on the infantry training every British soldier goes through when they first sign up.

In it, the Ukrainian volunteers sleep outside in cold, wet dugouts, learn military tactics and first aid, receive weapons training and practise trench warfare. And they’re asked if they’re mentally prepared to fight - and even to die.

The war in Ukraine began in 2014 and escalated after the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The United States estimates, according to recently-leaked documents, that between 189,500 and 223,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the conflict. The equivalent figure for Ukraine's losses is between 124,500 and 131,000.

The new BBC Three documentary, Stacey Dooley: Ready For War?, was granted unprecedented access to the UK-Ukraine training programme, known as Operation Interflex.

Presenter Stacey - who was eight months pregnant during filming - says following these men with no prior experience of combat was "literally like your own boyfriend or brother being asked to step up and fight the Russian army on the front line. It's an unimaginable task."

She says she wanted to understand how to "prepare a florist to change his entire identity essentially, and equip them to kill the enemy. That's such a monumental shift."

'I hope I will survive'

The UK has given Ukraine military, humanitarian and economic support worth more than £4bn since the invasion.

And despite concerns from one UK military chief that sending tanks and artillery guns will leave the British army weaker, a February 2023 survey from YouGov suggests the majority of the British public continues to support Ukraine.

Thirty-year-old Pasha is one of the men who went through the British military training. He was working in Belgium as a welder when Russian troops invaded, but he returned to Ukraine against his parents' wishes.

He remembers seeing the thousands of women and children trying to escape the country. "I saw people on the border. Almost all of them were girls, ladies and children. There were about 5,000 people. Who can protect them, if not us, who?"

He adds: "I don't know when the war will end, but I'm sure that we will win. It's only a question of time and a question about how many people will die. I hope, of course, that I will survive, but the chances are not so big, that's the truth. It's not hard, if you know what you're fighting for."

BBC/TRUE VISION EAST

Florist Mykola found time to write love letters to his girlfriend back home and arrange a delivery of flowers for her during the training

Mykola, meanwhile, was harvesting flowers for International Women's Day last year when Russia invaded. Months later he would be training to learn to "survive and be lethal".

"This enemy has come to us and is trying to take everything I have away from me," he says. "That's why I am training here in the UK, so we can be victorious and I can go back to my life."

In the midst of learning how to operate an AK-47 and practising rebel attacks in the woods, the 31-year-old florist found time to write love letters to his girlfriend back home and arrange a delivery of flowers for her.

"That's why I decided to respond to my country's call to arms and join up now. Then, we can hopefully go back to our lives."

'It's physically and emotionally tough'

Aliia has worked as a translator for the Ukrainian volunteers since last July.

She says her life in Ukraine before the invasion was peaceful - and she'd spend time with her family and friends.

But since the war, everything has changed, she says. She remembers being on a bus, hearing a missile alarm and wondering if she might die. Some of her friends have even been killed in the conflict.

"It affects every part of your life. You don't have that regular life that you had before."

BBC/TRUE VISION EAST

Aliia has worked as a translator for the Ukrainian volunteers since last July

She got involved as a translator in the British army training programme through a friend who was working on the project.

Along with translating the orders of the military trainers, Aliia says she's sometimes a support system for the men.

"They share their stories with us because obviously they get a bit sad that they're not with their family. We listen to them, we talk to them.

"It's not only physically tough [for them], but emotionally, it's very tough as well."

BBC/TRUE VISION EAST

The Ukrainian volunteers sleep outside in cold, wet dugouts - and learn military tactics and first aid

Aliia says she was expecting her role would be physical but she wasn't prepared for just how intense it can be. During one exercise, the men had to practise entering a building through a window on the second floor, which meant first jumping onto the roof of the building.

So, she agreed to be thrown onto the roof and jump through the window, ready to translate the next orders.

"That's important for me to do, because I show the guys that I'm with them 100%."

Aliia lives on the base in a shared room with other translators. In her first accommodation, she shared a room with nine women. In her downtime, she sleeps, studies weapons systems to improve her translation skills and catches up with her family back home. And for the first six months, she didn't leave the base at all.

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The hardest part of her role, she says, is finding a balance between becoming friends with the men and accepting that in a few weeks they'll be sent to a dangerous war zone where some will be killed.

When she first arrived, she refused to make small talk with them, ask about their families or even sit next to them while eating lunch to avoid getting too close.

But she found it wasn't possible to remain emotionally detached because "every single day you're sitting with them in the ambush, you're running with them through the trenches, you're standing with them under the rain and snow".

BBC/TRUE VISION EAST

The volunteers also receive weapons training and practise trench warfare

As each group leaves to go back to Ukraine, she cries - but she refuses to take their numbers or keep in touch with them afterwards, because it would be too emotionally difficult, she says.

After the training, some of the men have lost their lives in the battlefield, and one was pictured during the liberation of the Ukrainian city of Kherson.

For Aliia, it's important to be involved in the training so she can help the volunteers understand the information that "will increase their chances of surviving and helping others on the battlefield - and at the end, win the war and be back home safe".