© ITAR-TASS/Konstantin Sazonchik
In the course of Russia’s special military operation, the armed forces of Ukraine have lost some 100 thousand people killed and wounded. A statement to this effect came on Wednesday from head of the Russian Defense Ministry Army General Sergei Shoigu, when speaking on the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
"We also understand that, at the initial stage, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were represented by about 201-202,000 people, and the losses by now have exceeded 100,000: 61,207 people were killed and 49,368 were injured. These are quite significant losses, if we talk about the army of slightly more than 200,000 people: 100,000 means that half of the army has been lost," he said.
NATO countries have launched a large-scale program to train Ukrainian soldiers in all the military-related skills. Europe and the USA have joined hands to counter Russia, turning Ukraine and its army into their testing ground.
Sweden is training the Ukrainian military in the UK. The Swedish authorities have sent 120 instructors to the UK to train the Ukrainian military as part of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), as stated on the government’s website. This refers to basic training to be divided into several courses. The initiative is meant to strengthen Ukraine’s offensive and defense potential.
In total, the British program should involve about 10 thousand military personnel from Ukraine. Swedish instructors are career military people. Before the year is out, they will conduct several training courses for Ukrainian soldiers and officers. Swedish Foreign Minister Anne Linde also announced the allocation by the Swedish government of the seventh military aid package to Ukraine worth 500 million Swedish kronor ($47 million), including artillery ammunition and the transfer of 52 155-mm Archer self-propelled howitzers and portable RBS-70 air defense systems.
The concept of creating a training program for the Ukrainian armed forces belongs to Great Britain, which offered other countries that are part of the London-led JEF to join in. Apart from Sweden and Finland, these include Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Estonia. In fact, Ukrainian soldiers will be trained by the whole of Europe.
The one to announce the beginning of this pan-European mission was chief EU diplomat Josep Borrell: "Ukrainian soldiers are already being trained in Poland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain and France. We supply complex weapons, so training is required to operate them."
France also trains Ukrainian servicemen under a specialized program, although concealing the number of instructors and already retrained soldiers. Since February 2022, Paris has only once reported that it has officially prepared fifty Ukrainian military, without disclosing details, and then stopped throwing limelight on this topic at all. Most Ukrainians trained in France were taught to use Caesar self-propelled howitzers, whose shells tear apart Donbass civilians and destroy regional infrastructure.
Unlike France, Spain makes no secret of training of Ukrainian military at its bases. This is even reported by the country’s El Mundo newspaper. The training center operates in Zaragoza, and it has played host to some 600 Ukrainian servicemen who arrived there for treatment and recovery. At the training grounds they brush up on their skills of using Spanish armored vehicles and missile systems, actions by sabotage groups, sapper units and military medics. The training process involves all the weapons and equipment to be used on the battlefield, as well as simulators and transport of the Spanish army.
The corresponding news first broke in the summer, when Boris Johnson arrived in Kiev to meet Zelensky. As reported back then, the British PM offered sort of a "breakthrough" training program to provide Ukraine’s army with 10,000 servicemen trained every four months. The activities would take place in the UK and other NATO countries. Each Ukrainian serviceman would take a three-week course to master warfare skills on the front line, cybersecurity and anti-explosion tactics. Pride of place would go to firearms training, fieldcraft, tactics and studying the laws and customs applicable in armed, as well as battlefield first aid.
In parallel with Europe, the United States conducts its own training programs for the Ukrainian militants. According to the Pentagon, since February 24, the United States has trained 1,475 of them in using American weapons, in particular M777, HIMARS, M109 self-propelled howitzers, M113 armored personnel carriers, drones. Thus, the USA and the EU will supply Ukraine with tens of thousands of trained personnel who have already been thrown to the front and will keep enrolling. As the West has consolidated to defeat Russia, its military assistance, arms supplies and training of Ukrainian "cannon fodder" will obviously increase every single month.
No one is paltering with intentions to turn Ukraine into a testing ground for Western weaponry ˗ this is a mutual desire of Western countries and Kiev. Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Gavrilov recently stressed that US defense companies could use the conflict to test their defense projects, with some of them already doing this. He noted that a number of US companies had provided Kiev with equipment out of large-scale production yet, particularly anti-drone technologies and electronic warfare systems.
NATO Assistant Secretary General David van Weel said the alliance exploited the conflict in Ukraine to determine the potential of introducing cutting-edge technologies into the field of defense. The West does not risk anything when testing its own weapons and new military technologies in Ukraine, whether it be its own soldiers or comfort. And military corporations collect super revenues, with the economy fueled by multimillion-dollar contracts and orders. Such a conflict is beneficial to the West across the board, because losses in manpower and economic resources will be none of their business, but Ukraine’s.
Apart from the arms, new technologies related to management, intelligence, electronics, various systems and means of suppression are going to be tested and endorsed. Not a single military exercise is capable of providing such a room, as compared to long and intense combat operations. Thus, protracting the war is the West’s thoroughly calculated plan.
