The USA has been training Ukrainian soldiers in Germany since the beginning of the year. The military exercises take place at the largest US military training area in Europe, in Grafenwöhr, Bavaria. NATO troops regularly train here on an area of more than 20,000 hectares. According to US Brigadier General Pat Ryder, around 500 Ukrainian soldiers are to be trained at battalion level in Germany every month.
The Ukrainian soldier Anton took part in combat training as a scout at a military training area in Germany this summer. To preserve his identity, we have changed his name. Anton works as a drone operator. A wife and a small daughter are waiting for him.
ntv.de: When did the war start for you?
Anton: February 24, 2022. I woke up, saw the news and went to the draft board. There were already a lot of men waiting in line and I wasn’t accepted. The next day I went back and told them to either take me or give me a certificate of unfitness. Then they took me to the National Guard. I guarded strategic facilities for a while, about three months. One day we were lined up and asked who wanted to join the Azov Brigade. Only 20 out of 150 people, including me, responded. We were taken to a checkpoint, but it turned out that we weren’t supposed to be accepted into the Azov Brigade after all. A month and a half of pointless service followed, then I was given two days’ leave and during that time I managed to transfer to the unit where I am now. Everyone else here is still wondering how I did it, since I hadn’t served anywhere before February 24th and had no military experience.
Do you know why you were sent to Germany? Was there any selection criteria?
To be honest, there weren’t any. The main thing was that as a soldier you hadn’t made any serious mistakes and you hadn’t done anything wrong. This applies to the execution of certain combat tasks, but also to cases when a soldier overdoes it with alcohol. Then he has no chance to develop further and go to training. But almost my entire battalion was there, only a few remained in Ukraine.
What type of training did you receive here in Germany?
General military training, including reconnaissance.
And how long did the training last?
One and a half months.
Were you able to communicate with your trainers?
In the first week we communicated with the help of our interpreters from Ukraine, in the second week we were able to understand a bit of what the Americans were saying. Or we used Google Translate.
Would you say the training was effective?
During my training I was in a drone unit, a reconnaissance platoon. Our instructors were United States Army Rangers. The program was specifically aimed at education. Many of us already had combat experience, most of us had been fighting for months. But it didn’t seem to us that the training program was intended for people with combat experience. I didn’t actually learn anything special, we just walked twenty to thirty kilometers a day through the forest with a machine gun in the main reconnaissance team. I do that every day in Ukraine too. But the boys who didn’t know how to use maps learned how to use them. Some weapons were also explained to us, a machine gun for example. That was helpful too.
Were you able to leave the practice area, go into town and relax?
We weren’t allowed to go into the city, we spent all our time in the forest. But we had Sundays off. Then everyone could do whatever they wanted. For example, playing volleyball, doing sports or just sleeping.
Is there anything you liked about training in Germany?
On the military base itself there is discipline and clear rules that we sometimes lack. For example, there is a hierarchy between soldiers, sergeants and officers. A sergeant in a NATO army is like a mother and a father, and the soldiers treat them with great respect. Although they can joke with each other, there are clear boundaries and rules even when it comes to everyday things. When we arrived we were immediately told that we could only smoke in a certain place and only throw trash in certain trash cans. Everyone stuck to that. But when we returned to Ukraine, all the rules were forgotten.
Are there things that could be improved during training?
I would have liked the instructors to have more experience. The experience that the trainers have there does not match the experience that we have every day at the front. The Americans fought different wars than we do, they have different equipment. They work first with aircraft, then with tanks, then with artillery, and only then does the infantry come and do the rest. We don’t have that in Ukraine. We don’t have planes or tanks to the extent the Americans have, so our gold is infantry. Our tactics are basically this: artillery comes first, then infantry. If NATO troops were put on the front line in Ukraine, they would freak out.
There is also a lot of forest in Ukraine – a lot of vegetation that hinders the completion of tasks. When the Americans were at war in Iraq, they could see the enemy from ten kilometers away and shoot at them. That’s why it would make sense for the American military to come and see how we fight. By the way, when I took part in the exercises, many Americans said that they would like to help us destroy the enemy, but unfortunately they are not allowed to do that.
Did you go straight back to the front after your training?
Not all of us go to the front immediately after graduation. Some become trainers themselves. My battalion was able to rest for a few weeks and was then sent to the front.
Do you know of cases in which soldiers who came to Germany for training ran away?
Yes, I heard about such a case during our training. A man climbed over the fence and went to the Ukrainian embassy, but they brought him back. I have no idea why, that’s what I heard from the other soldiers. And I don’t know what happened to him, he wasn’t from our battalion.
How about you? Did you want to go back home even though you knew you were going back to war?
Yes. I didn’t like Germany that much – maybe because I was in the forest all day, the weather was bad and I was bitten by ticks several times (laughs). I don’t know, but this is my home, my country, my family and my friends.
You weren’t afraid?
Only suicide bombers are not afraid, I don’t have this stupid heroism. There are those people who beat their chests and say that they are not afraid of anything and go to the enemy with their bare hands. But practice shows that such people are the first to drop their weapons and run away from their positions. We are given a task, then we sit down with the boys and weigh up all the risks, how to do it right and when. The most important thing is that the task is set correctly and justified. Then we can get started and do our work quietly.
Is there nothing that unbalances you?
It’s very annoying when you come back from the front and people always ask the same questions: When will the war be over? Did you kill who? Questions like this annoy me and my colleagues. In such moments I would like to say: Come to us, the mobilization is ongoing, then you can answer the questions yourself.
What motivates you?
The idea that there is no one to protect the family of a soldier who died defending Mariupol, for example. His children and his wife are still there – who will protect them now? Or when I see these atrocities by Russians on the Internet or hear from acquaintances how Russians carve the letter Z into the backs of our soldiers with a knife. Then I feel hatred for the enemy.
Maryna Bratchyk spoke to Anton