Ukrainian cadet Artem Baranenko has been awarded the Overseas Sword of the British Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, an honor given to the foreign graduate considered best of the class by the commandant of the academy.
Major General Paul Nanson, the commandant at Sandhurst and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, delivered the award to Baranenko on Aug. 9, the British Embassy in Kyiv reported.
This year the academy, which has been training hopeful military officers since the year 1741, had 243 cadets, 33 of whom were from 23 foreign armies. Graduates this year came from countries including Afghanistan, Albania, Ukraine and the United States.
Baranenko has been a cadet at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Ground Forces Academy, a school for infantry cadets in Lviv.
He is the first Ukrainian to receive this distinction from Sandhurst. There have been 15 Ukrainians who studied at Sandhurst since 1997, when the academy started to receive cadets from Ukraine.
Artem Baranenko, recipient of the British Royal Military Academy Sandhurst’s 2019 Overseas Sword award, poses for a picture with his parents after the Sovereign’s Parade, the academy’s graduation ceremony in Sandhurst, England, on Aug. 9, 2019. (British Embassy Kyiv / Facebook)
The British Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is the British Army’s initial officer training center. As one of world’s leading military training academies, Sandhurst started to train international cadets since 1947.
The cadets are selected by the British Army Officer Selection Board and go through 44 weeks of rigorous training.
Another Ukrainian, air force officer Mykhailo Leshchenko, received the Sword of Honor of the British Royal Air Force College Cranwell for being the best of class in 2015.
Sandhurst is famous for its long list of prestigious alumni, which includes most members of the Royal Family who have gone on to serve in the U.K. military.
