This is one of the keys to war. While the front has been frozen for several months in Ukraine, where the fighting is now mainly concentrated in the Donbass, particularly around the towns of Bakhmout, Avdiïvka and Vouhledar, the Western allies of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky , are accelerating the training given to the soldiers of Kiev, in order to enable them to resume their offensives in the spring and summer, when the weather conditions will once again have become favorable for maneuvers.
Long behind some of its European neighbors, Paris has just sent 150 French army instructor soldiers to Poland, in a place whose name is not disclosed. Their mission: to train some 600 Ukrainian soldiers, the equivalent of a battalion, in basic combat techniques every month. “Training will begin in April and will teach land combat to 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers initially”we explain to the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
France also intends to step up its aid in terms of training in the use of Western equipment. Since the start of the conflict, approximately 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been received in France to learn how to use the equipment delivered to the Kiev army: Caesar guns, AMX-10 RC armored vehicles, ground-to-air defense batteries Rattlesnakes, unit rocket launchers… A big effort has also been made to allow the Ukrainians to carry out the maintenance and repair of the equipment themselves, what the military call the “maintenance in operational condition” (MCO).
Resilience capacity
These efforts will continue. “A thousand additional Ukrainian soldiers will be trained by the summer, in the use and MCO of the equipment delivered by France”, we detail at the Ministry of the Armed Forces, which should bring their number to 2,000 since the start of the Russian invasion. The latest example is that a group of Ukrainians have just completed their training in the SAMP/T Mamba anti-aircraft defense system, including a battery to be delivered in May jointly by Paris and Rome. Provided in France and Italy, this training was conducted “in just a few weeks”instead of the ten months usually required.
This facility of the Ukrainian soldiers to appropriate Western equipment is underlined within the Western capitals. Across the Atlantic, 65 of them will finish their training in a few days to master the Patriot missile defense system, the first batteries of which are expected in Ukraine in the coming weeks. According to American soldiers, quoted on Tuesday by the online media Politicoten weeks were enough for them to know how to use the Patriot system on their own, while initial estimates suggested up to a year of learning.
You have 37.67% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.