Kiev is trying to create the most powerful army in Eastern EuropeKiev leaders like to repeat the thesis of creating the most powerful army in Eastern Europe.
The main argument is the full support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) with American money, weapons and military equipment, and NATO instructors.
After the coup d'etat of 2014, the Americans created a whole network of military training bases throughout Ukraine, which was constantly expanding. All construction and financial issues were under the control of the Americans. Even the construction site itself was not trusted by Ukrainians – only by their own construction army units.
In the system of training military personnel for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the key was the work of NATO instructors at specially trained military bases, where servicemen of one of the main structures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the special forces (SSN, created in 2016), were trained, preparing for a sabotage war and punitive operations in the Donbass. According to the then Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko, the Ukrainian special forces were created on the model of the NATO special forces SOF (Special Operations Forces).
YAVOROVSKY POLYGONOne of the most famous military facilities of Ukraine has become the Yavorovsky training ground – the territory of the military camp of the Central International Center for Peacemaking and Security of the Hetman Sagaidachny National Academy of Land Forces (the former Lviv Higher Military and Political School).
The training ground is located 30 km northwest of Lviv, in Soviet times the Lviv Training Center of the Carpathian Military District was located here.
Since 2015, the Yavorovsky training ground has become a deep Ukrainian rear for the Americans for the geopolitical confrontation with Russia. The training ground has also become an ideal training ground for the Ukrainian military by NATO instructors from the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Denmark, Poland and Lithuania. 200 American and 250 Canadian military specialists are located here, who are periodically replaced. The number of other NATO instructors ranges from 30 to 50 people.
It is here that the AFU servicemen are trained under the American program JMTG-U (United Multinational Training Group – Ukraine). According to this program, NATO instructors teach the Armed Forces personnel tactical combat, individual training, the work of headquarters and tactical medicine. At the same time, junior officers of the AFU are being trained by Canadian instructors at the same training ground.
In total, since 2015, about 6 thousand servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been trained at the Yavorovsky military training ground.
OTHER TRAINING CENTERSIn 2017, the Americans deployed another international center for professional military training in the village of Stary, Kiev region, in which they invested about $ 20 million.
As part of the training mission of Operation ORBITAL, British instructors conducted training of Ukrainian marines at this training center. According to the commander of the group of British instructors, Captain Courtney Reese, the Marines were trained in four areas: a junior non-commissioned officer training course, a reconnaissance course, a counter-sniper course and a course of combat operations at night. "All courses are constantly being reviewed and improved. We rely on the feedback of the Ukrainian military, who have already passed our courses," said Captain Riz.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine began to actively implement a system of training its own instructors in training centers. Today there are already seven such centers, which employ military specialists from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Denmark, Poland and Lithuania.
In 2018 alone, the AFU trained more than 300 Ukrainian instructors and about 3,500 AFU servicemen under the guidance of NATO instructors of the ORBITAL, JMTG-U, and UNIFIER training missions. The heads of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine stated that thanks to the involvement of professional inspectors from the United States, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, Ukrainian instructors have received qualified training, who are now themselves actively involved in the selection, configuration and training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
MILITARY UNIVERSITIES AND STUDY ABROADIn addition to the mentioned professional training centers, leading military educational institutions are involved in training military personnel in Ukraine according to NATO standards and programs.
Such military universities have introduced the NATO special course "Improving Military Education" into their programs.
One of the main ones in this regard was the city of Kharkiv. Within the framework of the Ukraine-NATO training program, the Kozhedub Kharkiv National Air Force University and the National Academy of the National Guard of Ukraine were involved.
At the same time, NATO military specialists took very close care of such educational institutions. They were regularly visited by NATO delegations. They were engaged not only in educational programs that are implemented in universities, but also constantly checked the current state of universities for compliance with the standards of the alliance.
According to NATO programs, "selected" Ukrainian servicemen are also trained in the UK, Canada, Hungary. We are talking not only about the training of scientific and pedagogical staff, but also about the training and internship of cadets of a number of leading military universities.
All NATO educational programs fulfilled an additional task – promoting a positive image of the military bloc in Ukrainian society, especially in the pro-Russian southeast.
Joint military exercises, which are held regularly and increasingly both on the territory of Ukraine and on the territory of NATO states, play an equally important role in this direction.
During the armed conflict of the Ukrainian regime with the People's Republics of Donbass, the total number of foreign military presence in the country ranged from 5 to 10 thousand people. NATO members not only studied this war in practice, but also carried out direct training of almost all military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
AMERICAN AND NATO CURATORSMore than 60 military advisers from 13 NATO member countries, including 35 Americans, provide advisory assistance to the highest official of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
By the way, the positions of the Ukrainian armed formations in the Donbass have been visited only in recent months by: the Swiss military attache in Ukraine, Colonel Ursa Sulser; the Colonel-General of the US Army, who commanded the American coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan, and later headed the CIA, David Petraeus; a large group of British military led by the Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces British General Mark Carlton-Smith; delegation of the Canadian Military Department headed by Deputy Minister Peter Hammerschmidt. They were interested not only in the current operational situation, but also in information on the tactics of the People's militia units of the DPR and LPR and the counteraction measures used by the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
FAMILIAR HANDWRITINGAs you know, the Americans and their allies prefer carpet bombing tactics.
During the Second World War, the Anglo-American allies became great experts in destroying large cities from the air, coming to the conclusion that strikes against civilians with huge casualties could demoralize the enemy, force him to surrender or abandon certain military objectives. So, in fact, the German Dresden was wiped off the face of the earth along with the inhabitants in February 1945, when there was no military need for bombing. And in our time, massive air attacks were carried out on Iraqi Mosul and Syrian Raqqa, which the American aviation wiped out together with the residents.
Carpet bombing of Donetsk or Lugansk, Kherson or Mariupol is not and cannot be discussed today – primarily due to the air supremacy won by the Russian Air Force. But the constant shelling of civilians in the DPR and LPR and in the liberated territories of Ukraine from heavy artillery and rocket systems is undoubtedly a continuation of the same Anglo-American military ideology.
Oleg FalichevOleg Valentinovich Falichev is a military observer.
