Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder, a butt in the colors of Ukraine in his hands, Sacha is fighting today on the war front. Before, he was a policeman Vinnytsia, in the west of the country. He therefore had some knowledge of the handling of weapons. “I studied this in police academy a long time ago“, he says. Sacha is one of the many Ukrainians who have trained for war, to go and defend their country. Men and women who have become soldiers on the job and who give a definite advantage to the Ukrainian army.
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Sacha learned the trade of soldier far from Ukraine, on the military base of Lydd, in the south-east of England. It was last June, he was with 2,000 other volunteers from his country. Based on this, he learned “first first aid, emergency medicine, how to approach an injured person“.”We can’t rush, for example if he’s lying down and he doesn’t see you, he will hear your footsteps and he can shoot you, so we have to crawl, talk to him, explain that we are in the same camp and that we want to help him“, he explains. It is appropriate that “all this is not obvious” and that this training was essential. He was able to take advantage of the know-how of European soldiers.
“In Europe, there are very good professionals, we have to be inspired by them, especially when they teach us how to handle their weapons, it’s great.”
These workouts were hard to follow: “The first week was very intense and exhausting to get used to the fight. We had short breaks of about ten minutes, half an hour for lunch and from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. we were just training. They trained us for that.“
In all, Sacha completed three weeks of training. Two-thirds devoted to tactical work and the rest to war medicine. And it pays off on the pitch. Sacha has been on the Kherson front for four months. With eight other artillerymen, he waits, hidden under the roof of a gas station, for an order and coordinates to advance towards the battle front. The objective: to send the rockets from its missile launcher to the Russian positions.
“We are now one of the best armies. The proof: we are in the process of derusting the second army in the world. Yes, we can say that we are one of the best armies in the world“, he enthuses. From his training in the United Kingdom, Sacha has kept a motto: “Experience, self-confidence and intelligence.” The triptych of the good soldier; according to him.
A Ukrainian soldier recounts his training – The report by Thibault Lefevre
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