Media: UK holds off on sending military instructors to Ukraine

Western officials believe that British troops training Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine would be a “target” for Russian missiles.

Defence Secretary John Healey has suggested that Ukrainian training could be moved from the UK to bases in western Ukraine, far from the front line. During his visit to Kyiv this week, he stated that Britain must “make the training a better fit for what the Ukrainians need” and mentioned that the decision had caused him sleepless nights, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

Ukraine has struggled to mobilize enough troops to match the Russian army, finding itself increasingly outnumbered on the battlefield. Although President Zelensky reduced the mobilization age from 27 to 25 this year, he has resisted Western pressure to lower it to 18. Western allies are exploring ways to assist Ukraine with its mobilization efforts, including the possibility of moving training to Ukraine, a suggestion considered earlier in the war.

General Sir Patrick Sanders had been advocating for the UK to train Ukrainians within the country since September of last year when he was head of the British Army. However, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, overruled him and advised the then Defence Secretary Grant Shapps against it. “A closer proximity to the front makes the training more efficient,” a Western official said. “But it’s fair to say the Russians would target any kind of western assistance inside Ukraine.” 

Since the summer of 2022, Britain has hosted 51,000 Ukrainian troops as part of Operation Interflex, the army’s training programme. Most Ukrainians undergo basic training, but some have attended specialized courses, including commandos who have received training from the Royal Marines in amphibious warfare. Prior to the war, British soldiers trained the Ukrainian army at a base in western Ukraine. In January 2022, about 30 British troops arrived at the Yavoriv military base near the Polish border, where they taught Ukrainian soldiers how to fire NLaw anti-tank missiles. 

The British soldiers left Ukraine a month later, just before the war broke out, and the missiles proved to be crucial during the battle for Kyiv when Russian troops failed to capture the capital. In March 2022, a few weeks after the British troops' withdrawal, Russia launched about 30 missiles at the Yavoriv base, killing 64 people. This week, Healey announced £225 million in military aid for Ukraine as Russian troops continued their advance across the front line, getting within 3 kilometers of Pokrovsk, a key garrison town in Donbas. 

According to Western officials, Russia is losing 1,500 troops daily but is managing to replace them with new recruits. Meanwhile, Ukraine has carried out asymmetric attacks, including using a booby-trapped scooter to assassinate the Russian general responsible for the country’s nuclear defenses in Moscow earlier this week. 

By Naila Huseynova