In a field at a secret location, dozens of armed Ukrainian soldiers are running through billowing smoke and trying to escape the attention of drones buzzing overhead.
The field is in East Anglia, not Kursk, and the drones are dropping water balloons, not explosives. Rubber bullets are fired instead of the real thing and the day will end without a single casualty.
This is how Britain prepares Ukrainian troops for the front line – and has been doing so since a formal training scheme was introduced in June 2022.
But more than 1,000 days into the conflict, the nature of the battlefield preparations has changed significantly – along with the mindset of those benefiting from the experience.
Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for example, are currently taking centre stage ahead of deployment in Ukraine, which one senior British commander describes as a “laboratory for the evolving character of war in a conflict”.
The Ukrainian recruits, who have travelled to the UK for up to 10 weeks, face a far harder task than those who first embarked on the scheme two years ago. Then, victory seemed possible; now, a total defeat of Russia seems far more difficult to envisage.
Luke Pollard, the minister for the Armed Forces, visits the troops – David Rose for the Telegraph
However, British soldiers such as Lt Col Rob Smith, the commanding officer of 3 SCOTS – the division currently training the Ukrainians as part of Operation Interflex – try to remain positive, for the sake of the men and women they train.
The wargame situations in both trenches and built-up urban areas are based on real-world battles, including the Russian oppression of Mariupol in the early days of the invasion, covering how the war is fought in both civilian areas and at the front lines.
The British military also takes its lead from defence intelligence, which informs how the fighting is changing in Ukraine on both sides, to keep the lessons as timely as possible.
Source: msn