FROM OUR REPORT- Kent (England) The rear of the Ukrainian war is here, in the countryside of Southern England, among landscapes dotted with wind turbines and placid grazing sheep. But as soon as you cross the barbed wire threshold of the Kent military base (which must remain secret), you are hit by the acrid smell of gunpowder, the smoke bombs enter your eyes, the explosions rumble deafening interrupted only by the crackling of the machine guns.
It’s a battlefield: Ukrainian army recruits are crawling in the mud, pressed by the shouts of British instructors, ‘Move, fucking move! Do you want to die here?” The girls who act as interpreters go up and down, their ears sheltered by soundproof headphones, the young soldiers gasp, their faces exhausted under the camouflage colors, they fall over, get up again, run towards the enemy lines. It’s like being on the set of Full Metal Jacket, only this isn’t a movie. “We take civilians and transform them into soldiers”, explain the British officers: because this is the training program of the Ukrainian military which has already seen 17,000 recruits pass through UK bases and which by next year aims to reach 30 thousand.
They are taxi drivers, bakers, bus drivers, but also doctors and bankers, people who have no military training and who through a very hard five-week course are able to face the Russian invader. The average age is 33, but there are also 18-year-olds and white-haired over-50s: they inculcate the basic principles, namely “survival and lethality”.
Here, at the Kent base, they simulate the advance along the last few hundred meters before enemy lines, preparing them to face the sights and sounds of the battlefield without giving in to panic and stress. Then there is the practice of urban warfare, with the raids from the windows of dilapidated houses and close-range firefights.
“What brought me here? – explains Dmytro, balaclava on his face and machine gun in his arms -. First of all protect my family and my friends, at the same time as my country». Before the war, in Ukraine, he had a small business, a printing house that worked for publishing houses, and before coming here he was already helping the armed forces of Kiev as a civilian volunteer, because his younger brother is also a soldier and therefore wanted to support him .
«I had no previous military experience – he admits – I learned all my training and knowledge here in recent weeks: now I am confident that I can defend myself and my brothers in arms. And defend Ukraine.”
Dmytro has a wife and two children, a 17-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl: communicating his choice to them was not easy. “It has been a long process explaining to my family that I have to defend them and Ukraine. It wasn’t an immediate decision: my son understood that I have to do it, the little girl a little less – he admits with some regret-. My parents approve, it was difficult but they understand ».
Many of these recruits went directly into Bakhmut’s meat grinder: “I’m not saying that I’m not afraid for myself – confesses Dmytro – but I can say with certainty that we have strong people in Ukraine: it is our land, we will defend it and we have no other choice if not protect her.” Confident that you will win the war? The fellow soldiers who gather around him echo him: “Of course, we have no other options.”
They are trained by the Royal Marines, but also officers of the RAF, the Royal Air Force, assisted by an international contingent ranging from Canadians to Lithuanians. In addition to the fundamentals for survival, the training also focuses on the use of drones and on the study of the Russian trench system: they teach him Western techniques, because the preparation of the Ukrainian armed forces is still of the Soviet type. And these recruits, once in the field, “make the difference, the local commanders are impressed,” said the British instructors. Great Britain has been in the front row, ever since since the beginning of the Russian invasion, in supporting the Ukrainian resistance: London has so far provided military assistance for 4.5 billion pounds (over 5 billion euros, an effort second only to the American one), which includes Challenger tanks, armored vehicles, over 10,000 anti- tanks, 100,000 artillery shells, over one hundred anti-aircraft guns, to which is added the training program for infantry, tank crew and pilots.
June 29, 2023 – Updated June 29, 2023, 07:12 am
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