More than 30,000 ordinary Ukrainian men and women have trained to become soldiers under the largest military training programme of its kind on British soil since the Second World War, the UK government has announced on its website.
Ahead of schedule, the UK-led Op Interflex has reached the milestone of 30,000 recruits trained in the UK since June 2022 – taking the total number of trained Ukrainian soldiers to more than 52,000 since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
Op Interflex launched in June 2022 and had the target of training 30,000 troops by the end of 2023.
Delivered in locations throughout the UK, the world-leading programme takes volunteer recruits who have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine with little to no previous military experience and teaches them the skills required to survive and be effective in frontline combat. The training allows Ukraine's forces to accelerate their deployments, rebuild their forces, and scale-up their resistance as they continue to defend their nation’s sovereignty against Russian invaders.
The course is delivered over a minimum period of five weeks and includes weapons handling, battlefield first aid, Law of Armed Conflict training, patrol tactics and rural environment training.
During the past 12 months, the UK's wider package of support has also evolved to include upskilling Ukrainian Marines, with British Commandos training Ukraine's forces in small boat amphibious operations, as well as mine-clearance training by the Royal Engineers, trauma response training and even Army chaplaincy support for Ukrainian padres.
After launching last summer, a number of international partner forces joined the programme, providing vital experience, training and insight into frontline combat. These countries include Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, The Netherlands and Australia. And today, NATO ally Romania has also confirmed its involvement, taking the total number of partner nations to ten.