Instructors from Ukraine to help train German army
Germany’s army (Bundeswehr) is to benefit from the expertise of military instructors from Ukraine, thanks to an agreement signed by the defence ministers of the two countries last Friday.
“The plan is to incorporate the experience of Ukrainian soldiers into army training, particularly at the army’s troop schools,” a Bundeswehr spokesman told dpa on Monday. He did not want to comment on the details.
The Bundeswehr is reacting to the considerable changes that have unfolded on the battlefield in Ukraine since it was attacked by Russia almost four years ago.
For example, the Ukrainian soldiers have more extensive experience in deploying and fighting drones, but also in the rapid integration of modern command and control technologies in combat units.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported last week that a team of around ten invited Ukrainians took out numerous armoured vehicles and other targets within a very short space of time during a NATO exercise in the Baltic States last year.
One participant in the exercise told the newspaper that the opposing unit led by Estonians with the Ukrainians had incapacitated “two battalions in one day.”
The NATO side had not succeeded in eliminating the opposing drone teams.
NATO did not comment on the details of the exercise when asked, but a spokeswoman pointed out that exercise scenarios can be specifically designed to give the opposing side an advantage.
