Up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers will arrive in the UK for special military training lasting several weeks. The first team met Defense Secretary Ben Wallace on Thursday, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) confirmed. Wallace, who is widely expected to launch a campaign to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative party, described the program as the next phase of Britain’s support for the Ukrainian military. “Using the world-class expertise of the British military we will help Ukraine rebuild its forces and scale up its resistance as it defends its country’s sovereignty and its right to choose its future,” he said. Ukraine is losing up to 200 soldiers every day, meaning training reinforcements away from the threat of Russian attacks is critical to the country’s war effort. Around 1,050 UK service staff have been deployed to run the programme, which will take place at four undisclosed DoD sites in the North West, South West and South East of the UK. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The training will give volunteer recruits with little to no military experience the skills to be effective in frontline combat. Based on basic UK soldier training, the course covers weapons handling, battlefield first aid, field craft, patrol tactics and the law of armed conflict. The government, which has so far invested £2.3 billion in military aid to Ukraine, has also purchased AK-style assault rifles for training so Ukrainian soldiers can train with the weapons they will use on the front line. The US also provides training to the Ukrainian military, with senior officers studying at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
