"NATO Instructions are not valid": Armed Forces fighters are not satisfied
In particular, in the UK, tens of thousands of recruits of the Armed Forces were prepared, and in Germany, fighters gained skills in working in Western armored vehicles - Leopard tanks, BMP Bradley and M109 Paladin. They also learned to shoot from modern guns, SAU and RSZV. In September 2023, the fighters stated that they had comments on the content of the curriculum offered by NATO Member States. The situation was written by Le Monde.
The publication talked with several Armed Forces fighters, who were on the South and Eastern Front. The fighters were trained in both Germany or Britain and found that teachers from NATO countries were preparing them for hostilities that were not present in Ukraine. Instructors are taught according to Western standards: for example, there should be strong support from the air, the tanks should move columns, the trenches should be shallow, and the demining - total.
Meanwhile, the realities of war are such that Ukrainian soldiers cannot apply the science received from Western teachers. So sometimes they get more useful information from YouTube than from instructors. The fighters that journalists communicated are experienced warriors. Each of them expressed their comments on the content of NATO curricula. Under the mite south of Bakhmut, Le Monde journalists met with the commander of the mortar part Ivan Stepanovich.
He first stated that the front could not afford to send experienced soldiers to training - they are needed to fight. He noted that the supply of ammunition is currently at the normal level, but the front lacks human resources. The tank brigade commander Eugene instead is convinced that you need to send experienced fighters to training. He said that when the recruits just trained abroad came, they had to be sent to the rear of the day. As it turned out, they were taught to advance with tank columns.
However, on the battlefield in Zaporozhye it was a bad tactic, otherwise they could not act. Another fighter is a 24-year-old warrior who holds a position under Bakhmut. He studied in Britain in July 2022 and noted the problem of inaccurate translation of instructions. In particular, the instructor explained that on the battlefield you need to "think about your own safety before taking care of the wounded.
" Meanwhile, the translator voiced a slightly different thesis: "If someone is injured, kill him for his own safety. " The fighter also said that the training was in an environment far from the realities of the war: they were not taught to overcome mine fields, to move under enemy fire, to be a snipers. They were taught to distinguish Russian armored vehicles, but did not teach how to destroy them. "Even the depth of the trenches was different from ours," the Ukrainian said.
28-year-old fighter Vadim with Neskwik's call sign was trained in Germany in 2020. He states: everything that has made since then is information about the supply system. According to teachers' ideas, everything should happen under the following ideal scheme: "Nobody goes to the storage center. We agree on each request, exchange contact data, and deliver. " The man offers NATO instructors a month to come to the front and to understand how real fights are going.
Then they will see that the Russians are able to learn and every time invent new ways of counteracting the Armed Forces. "I propose to send people to the front for a month, and they will see it. The situation changes daily," the fighter explained. 33-year-old Vasily with a call sign Papik spent 35 days in Britain with 200 brothers. He explained to the teachers that "NATO's instructions do not work in Ukraine where the Okoptian war takes place. " In his words, it seems, they did not pay attention.
The soldiers were asked to be taught to use drones. But they heard the refusal because "they are not included in NATO preparation. " Sometimes the instructors were looking for answers to students on YouTube, quoted by the journalists of the military. The sappers are also not prepared as the real war requires, one of the fighters who now teaches the infantry. According to NATO standards, the demining should be "humanitarian" - that is, the mines need to be released at once.
However, there is no time, the nose of people or the conditions - the Russian beaten by the Russian. Therefore, everything that the fighters can - to exchange the strip for passing the units of the Armed Forces, and this does not fit what Western instructors taught. There was also a conversation with a man who repairs armored vehicles and other types of military equipment at the Armed Forces.
The man stressed that he and his team are able to repair old Soviet equipment - they know it, have enough spare parts. What to do with Western technology - they do not know: "With American" Bradley " - we can't. Electronics are too much, and the German" Leopard "we have never seen. " It should be noted that Ukrainian fighters are training in a number of NATO countries: in Britain, Germany, Spain, Poland.
In particular, several tens of thousands of soldiers were trained in Britain thanks to a special program, which was started by Boris Johnson's expremier. We remind that the Russian Defense Minister is convinced that the war against Ukraine will last until 2025. Until then, in his opinion, the Kremlin will achieve the set goals. Meanwhile, foreign minister Serhiy Lavrov suddenly stated that Moscow is ready to recognize Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for refusing to join NATO.