Training Ukraine’s volunteer army 🇺🇦

It is necessary to end this waras soon as possible and finally freeour Ukraine from the enemy. I didn't think that I would become a soldier. I had other plans for life. But it happened like that. Since the UK-led training to the Armed Forces of Ukraine started in June 2022, over 10,000 soldiers have been trained and redeployed back to Ukraine. I’ve been nine years in the air force,.

But this is by far the mostimportant thing I’ve ever done. We run a five-week basic combat course. That is every day, 24 hours a day,seven days a week for that period. The focus of the course is to givethe volunteers to the Armed Forces of Ukraine the skills and principlesto survive, fight and win. Before the full-scale war,I worked as a bartender. I knew this would happen to me. I was waiting for it. I was ready for this,to go and defend my country.

I am a pediatrician, a pediatric surgeon, and I had to work with childrenwho came from the occupied regions. To tell the truth, what they conveyed,the emotional background they had, is something terrible. And this horror must be fought somehow. Ok, we’re going to start the demonstrationwith a small recap how to enter the building and afterwards we’re goingto show you some new things. A significant amount of the courseis spent in the urban training facility. Urban is a complex environmentwith its own specific challenges.

So it’s really importantthat we train the trainees how to cope and operatein those environments. Until now it’s going well. It’s a lot of information for those guys. We have a short time to practise itso we have to tell them a lot of things and practise it a lot, a lot, a lot. Again, again and again. So the first man goes in. The second man movesimmediately behind him.

The door is closed on the left. They have to try to make it similaras we do in every urban terrain. So you have to put a lot of different buildings to make this as realistic as possible. We have training teams from Norway, theNetherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland as well as the UK and theUkrainian national support element. Across the whole operation there’s then Canadian, Australian and New Zealandtraining teams involved as well. So very multinational.

It demonstrates the shared valuesthat nations in NATO and NATO partners have, both in the support to Ukraineand just working together. Those relationships are built on yearsof working and operating together in other operational environments. Lay down from my left and fill up each lane and find your targetand then we will begin shortly. We are training basic marksmanship. The goal here is to have good groupings and to make sure that they usetheir sights correctly as well.

The small arms training is anincredibly important part of the course. Teaching the trainees the confidenceand skills to handle a weapon safely but also in a lethal manner to ensure that they canprovide the best support to their units when they go backand are integrated into them. It’s all about teaching them how to be as efficient as possiblewith their weapon, but also how to survive as long as possible. Every night you go to bed and you think.

‘Ok, did I do good today? Was there anythingI could have done different?’ It’s an honour to be a part of their education and to see the progress they have. There’s no place I would rather be right now. The training is going very well. Everything is new for me. That's why I try to study like my brothers.The atmosphere here is very good. We try to listen to our instructors.

We have made very good progress, so we will return to Ukraineprepared to defend it. As well as focusing onthe relevance of the course, we also focus on the realism and immersing the trainees inthose realistic battlefield scenarios to help them to understand the effects that has on themmentally and indeed physically and also to prepare them forthe battlefield that they’ll go back to. Arm injury.

It’s like a false bombardment that’s come in and they’ve got to treat two casualtiesthat currently have been wounded. So it’s up to the guys tounderstand what’s wrong with them and then treat them. They get into it, making sure it’s the very basic thingslike stopping massive bleeds, making sure the personcan breathe and things like that. But it’s been very, very good so farand they’re taking it all on board. Medical training is an important skill.

And it’s a focus on trainingsoldiers to look after themselves should they become injured, but also to look after the soldiersleft and right of them. Right, let’s go. Let’s go now. On the frontlinewhere there’s so many of them, casualties and woundsare going to happen over there. For them to know this stuff is critical and these guys are all over it.

They’ve hardly put a foot wrong. In a five-week course we can’t teachevery context or every scenario that the trainees will face but what we can give themis the basic skills and principles which they can then adapt in the context of what they’re facing on the battlefield,to survive and fight. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! Ukraine!.

Above all! Ukraine! Above all! Ukraine! Above all! I am proud of the factthat I went to defend my country, with my brothers. I will try to free Ukraine from the occupier and drive the enemy out of our land.

On the one hand, it's the supportgiven by the Norwegians, the British and generallythe whole team working with us. It's impossible to appreciatehow much of a boost this gives us. The most important thing thatwe have on the battlefield right now is that we are not alone, that we are with allies.

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