Tri-Service

Role Reversal: British Troops Training Ukranians Learn From Pupils

British soldiers sent to train in the Ukraine are fast learning that strategy perfected in the Afghan theatre is not adept for their current students, who face Russian-backed separatists with more firepower and professionalism than any Taliban fighter.

In Western Ukraine, a small force of British trainers is trying to teach the beleaguered Ukrainian Army battlefield skills that will keep them alive against more heavily-armed Russian-backed separatists.

But British soldiers of 1st Bn The Yorkshire Regiment and 4 Armoured Medical Regiment are finding they can also learn from their pupils.

Troops who have spent a decade in operations against lightly-armed Taliban insurgents and IED's are learning from those who have spent a year facing the very different threat of Putin’s tanks and heavy artillery.

British troops learn what it's like to face Russian forces as they train Ukrainians

WO2 Steven Harrison, Company Sergeant Major, said: “We try to learn as much from them as we are trying to teach them.

“We have never been to war with an overmatched force before. Wherever we have been, we have always been the better equipped, better manpowered, better disciplined army, so some of the lessons that they have been learning are things that we can definitely understand ourselves and get back into our training cycle.”

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This comes as Michael Fallon made a pledge during a visit to Kiev recently, saying that the UK will “double the amount of [Ukrainian] troops” trained from over 1,000 to 2,000 by the end of the year."

He told Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk that his visit was intended to “reaffirm” UK’s support for Ukraine.

He continued:

“Seven thousand people have already died in the Ukraine, right on the doorstep of Europe … This is not a frozen conflict, it’s still red hot,” Fallon said, adding: “We are not going to turn our back on Ukraine.”

WO2 Steve Harrison explained the training "is relaxed but we have very sharply in mind that the guys that we are training are going to be at high end operations pretty soon after,” said the 38-year-old from Barnsley.

"They are in a pretty difficult fight."

“They have asked us to teach offensive tactics, but we are not in that field, it’s defensive tactics we are teaching and how to preserve life,” said Lt Col Paul Kinkaid, a training specialist with the Adjutant General’s Corps.

Drills honed in Afghanistan in the face of Helmand’s homemade bombs may not be suitable for eastern Ukraine, where the great threat is artillery and snipers, he said.

“The Ukrainians weren’t lacking anything, they are a credible armed force, but they want different ways of doing business.

“Some of our drills have been very deliberate because the threat that we focused on in Afghanistan was from improvised explosive devices, so they were slower than they need to be here.

“Obstacle crossing, for example a bridge, was very slow, very deliberate because in Afghanistan it would be a choke point where IEDs could be laid, whereas the Ukrainians don’t have that time.

“They say that at the front line if they are exposed for more than 11 minutes they can start to get hit by artillery.”