A group of Ukrainian soldiers who were trained in Britain surrendered after only 20 minutes of fighting with Russian forces on the Eastern front, according to Sputnik.
A group of Ukrainian soldiers, who trained at a British military base last summer, surrendered just 20 minutes after confronting Russian forces near Svyatogorsk in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
The above information was revealed by Artyom Kovalenko, a member of a group of soldiers, to the Sputnik news agency (Russia).
Kovalenko recalled that, before the group of Ukrainian soldiers arrived at the Workop base in the UK, they had arrived in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, from where they moved across the border to Poland and then took a bus to enter the UK.
According to Kovalenko, they attended a 21-day training course for recruits at the British base, including shooting, first aid, military law, and basic combat skills such as trench attack, and courts. house and city.
After the group finished training, the soldiers returned to the city of Zhytomyr in the north of Ukraine, where they participated in joint combat training with the 25th brigade of the Ukrainian army.
“We went to the Volyn region for patrol duty in the village of Zabolotye, and then to Svyatogorsk (Donetsk province, eastern Ukraine), where we lived at one point for four days. Soon we went to the front line, where we were active for a month before our capture We were assigned to hold the line We were captured on December 1st after our position was attacked 20 minutes into the fight I surrendered,” Kovalenko recounted.
In addition to the US, Canada, and the UK, which have trained thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, some European Union (EU) countries such as Germany and France also train Ukrainian forces to use artillery systems, and launchers. modern missile and air defense systems they have delivered to Kyiv. Last month, Britain, the United States, and Germany all announced their readiness to supply Ukraine with main battle tanks including Challenger 2, M1 Abrams, and Leopard 2.
In November 2022, the EU announced a program to train 15,000 Ukrainian servicemen in response to Russia’s 11-month-long military campaign. An EU official told AFP that training for the first 15,000 troops could be completed by the end of the second quarter of this year, and another 15,000 troops would be added from Ukraine. Training is expected to take place in Germany, Poland, and other European countries.
The US is training about 300 Ukrainian servicemen a month, a total of 3,100 since the conflict broke out. The training program focuses on teaching them how to operate modern US weapons systems, in which more than 600 soldiers are trained to use the High Mobility Rocket System (HIMARS).
Colin Kahl, US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, said training is important to ensure that Ukraine has the necessary professional force on the battlefield.
Ukrainian authorities have been concerned about sending too many soldiers out of the front line for training. However, in the winter context, where the intensity of the conflict may be reduced on many fronts, this could be a good time for training.
