British instructors will conduct various military training sessions for 2,000 Ukrainian military servicemen before March 2016, British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told reporters at a test and training range in Zhytomyr Oblast on Aug. 11.
Britain has already conducted training for 1,000 Ukrainian troops, he said, adding that he set the task of training 2,000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces before the end of the British financial year, i.e. March 31, 2016.
The program involves training in several areas, in particular, infantry training, first aid provision, and a course in navigating a minefield, fortification building, and conducting operations in an urban environment, Fallon said.
Everyone must remember what is now happening in eastern Ukraine, he said, while stressing the importance of implementing the Minsk agreements. Unless these are implemented, Britain will provide support and aid to Ukraine, he said. Britain was the leading nation that rallied European countries in a bid to impose sanctions against Russia, Fallon said. Britain will also do everything to prevent these sanctions from being lifted, he said.
For his part, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister for European Integration, Ihor Dolhov, said that British support is very important. “We also very much value Britain’s contribution to the reforming of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the security and defense sector. It is here that the Ukrainian military will get from British instructors the skills necessary for joint operations by units of the Ukrainian army and NATO member armies. It is here that military brotherhood is being born,” he said.
The Ukrainian troops, who took part in the special operation in Donbas, also have something to share with their British counterparts, Dolhov said.
