Ukraine is gradually regaining ground on the battlefield thanks, among other countries, to Canada. The yellow and blue army launched a “counter-offensive” in early June, involving thousands of soldiers trained and armed by NATO. Some 300 Canadian soldiers participated in this proxy war effort by training Ukrainian troops. THE Duty was able to speak with five of them, as well as with one of their recruits.
Artiom goes to war. The 29-year-old Ukrainian has started his second week of military training. By the end of the summer, he will be heading to the front.
Taking up arms was obvious to him. “Everyone in Ukraine right now has friends, relatives, colleagues, acquaintances who support the Ukrainian armed forces in different ways,” the young man said over the phone through an interpreter and under the watchful eye of attention of a Canadian instructor. ” […] This is an opportunity for me to make my contribution to the future victory. »
There are thousands of soldiers like him, most of them without any previous military experience, who have been coming and going for months in NATO bases, in England, Poland or Latvia. During these mind-blowing rotations, Canada helped prepare 36,000 Ukrainian soldiers for war.
They will be a total of 48,000 to participate in the spring counter-offensive, according to Pentagon documents leaked a few weeks ago. Facing them: some 200,000 Russians, “poorly trained reservists”, according to estimates British intelligence.
The bet is that the quality of the forces trained by NATO outclasses the quantity of soldiers deployed by the Russians.
“From the start, we have absolutely basic and general lessons on how to use weapons, details the soldier in the making. How to clean them, how to operate with them. We then have lessons in combat medicine, how to patrol, how to move the formation of the unit. Just today, we learned the basics of combat engineering. »
This five-week basic training is “extremely fast”, concedes the Canadian soldier in charge of this training, Major Jurgen Miranda. “We’re talking about what a Canadian soldier gets in terms of training in about a year. »
In minefield
Once these fundamentals learned in a barracks in England, Artiom will go to another base, in Poland. Then will begin a specialized training of sapper or rescuer of approximately four weeks.
On a normal day’s exercise, a mock battlefield looms in front of about 100 would-be deminers, says engineer group instructor Capt. Mark Schwarz. A trench in the distance awaits the small battalion. Disabled explosives are camouflaged between the two. ” [Les recrues] must now learn to reach the objective, clear their way there, make their way in the way they have learned, and then return to the starting point,” commands the captain in English.
Western, Russian, Soviet bombs… All the bad surprises are tackled by the trainers. At the slightest mistake, the Canadian instructor warns the recruit of the clumsiness which, repeated in a few weeks, could cost him his life. An additional layer of difficulty is added when we add to this stressful work the sounds of bombs or bullets whistling.
Everything is going very quickly for this specialized course which, in times of peace, would have lasted several months.
Nevertheless, morale and confidence remain very high, according to the six people interviewed individually by The duty. ” [Les Ukrainiens] are really motivated. They ask questions all the time, says captain Mark Schwarz. They are learning at a very good pace. Faster even than our soldiers somehow. »
A new standard
The training at the highest strategic level given by the Canadian military takes place in a small container installed at a base in Latvia.
A map is unfolded on a table in the middle of the windowless room. Eight Ukrainians surround the fictional battle plan. The radio crackles with equally fictitious information. Reconnaissance troops were surprised by an unlisted group of Russian soldiers. Apprentice strategists ask themselves a question. What to do ?
This sinister war game unfolds under the gaze of Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Johns. “I am like the master of the game, like in a game of Dungeon and Dragoncompare this nerd self-proclaimed. I have to understand the scenario and then establish the results based on their decisions. »
These Ukrainian tacticians must compose, as in real life, with a Ukrainian battalion of approximately 700 soldiers. These 700 people are divided into three infantry companies, a tank company, an engineer company and four or five platoons of specialists each comprising between 30 and 40 people.
“Their task is really to manage the fight, to move a company, to fire the artillery at the enemy. Things like that, says Lt. Col. Matthew Johns. All decisions have consequences. If we use our artillery, the enemy can spot us and fire back. So if you want to use it, it has to be for a good reason, because it’s a risk. »
To start again, until the victory
Seeing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers parade like this is not without shaking the hard hearts of Canadian instructors. Several of them had to take a few days off between the last two contingents to adjust to the horrors of war. “It is emotional for the instructors to see their students leave, because there is a great possibility that some of them will be killed. Reality hit them. They took two days, and after that, they took over, ”says Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Johns.
This mission, launched in 2015 and relaunched with a vengeance in 2022, seems to have a powerful motivating effect on Canadian troops. This time, the threat is “clear”, the soldiers are “involved in something tangible” and this war represents an “opportunity to work with our allies”, underline all the soldiers interviewed.
What are the Ukrainians’ chances of victory in this counter-offensive? Artyom, stopped by the Ukrainian translator, cannot answer. He is not aware. This is the only question left unanswered. Representatives of the Canadian Armed Forces are nonetheless giving some encouraging signals.
“I think we haven’t really seen the full impact of our efforts yet, because the Ukrainians didn’t have the capacity, they didn’t have enough experience, they didn’t have enough weapons, they didn’t have a big enough army. great to do it. Now they are building those abilities, encourages Matthew Johns. And I believe they will show us that they really have the ability to use these tools. »
Win or not, Canada is committed to training Ukrainians in Europe until at least 2026. Or until Ukrainians no longer need them.