World of warcraft: Australians in England teach Ukrainians how to defeat Russia

Australian troops have now taken over from the British advanced and specialised training for hand-picked Ukrainian veterans as the war with Russia heats up.

Australian soldiers under the command of Major Michael Jack train Ukrainian troops in urban warfare tactics in an English military camp. Picture: Andrew Parsons / Parsons Media

In a military camp in the east of England, Australian Defence Force personnel are barking orders. Cries of “get down”, “quick, quick” echo along a smoke-filled street with a realistic looking medical centre and pub.

The team of Ukrainian soldiers has just breached the door of a mock house – quaintly called “door appreciation” – and under the protective cover of their compatriots they check for booby traps, and storm inside to capture “the enemy”. Rounds of gunfire are heard as the team expertly clears the area.

It takes less than a minute and then the team prepares for an assault on the property next door.

Watching with a keen eye is Major Michael Jack from the 7th Battalion Royal ­Australian Regiment: the only ­soldier here given permission to speak and to show his face. This is Operation Interflex, the British-led mission to train members of the AFU (Force Ukraine) that has been in operation since June 2022.

Australia joined the training coalition in January 2023 under Operation Kudu as part of the country’s $910m in overall assistance to Ukraine, including $730m in military support.

Until the beginning of the year Australian troops conducted basic infantry skill training for Ukrainians, many of whom had no experience with a gun.

But they have now taken over from the British the instruction for more advanced and specialised training for hand-picked Ukrainian veterans.

“We make the exercises as ­realistic as possible,” Major Jack said in between lobbed smoke bombs, ear-splitting gunfire and lines of men moving swiftly along fences and building perimeters.

Major Michael Jack. Picture: Andrew Parsons / Parsons Media

Down one lane is a two-car crash and piles of rubble, fences, stairs and other obstacles such as bins – meaning the Ukrainians have to be nimble of foot. On the day The Australian visits, the Ukrainians have begun urban warfare training before breakfast and they will go through until sunset.

They appear to be diligent and concentrate carefully on the tasks they are set. “Our learning ­approach is to get out and do it,’’ Major Jack said.

He said the teachings were two-way, for the Australians were getting first-hand knowledge of drones and anti-drone warfare and also trench warfare.

The Australian training over the weekend took on a new urgency as an emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin – secure in a fifth term and emulating ­Stalin’s decades-long rule – turned his eye back to his attempt to crush Ukraine.

The Australian Defence Force trains Ukrainian soldiers. Picture: Andrew Parsons / Parsons Media

“I remember a photo from my childhood that hung in my family’s house,” Mr Tusk told Welt am Sonntag, a German newspaper. “It showed Sopot beach (near Gdansk on the Baltic coast) full of laughing people. It was taken on August 31, 1939. A few hours later the Second World War began 5km away. I know it sounds devastating, especially for the younger generation, but we have to get used to the fact that a new era has begun: the pre-war period. I’m not exaggerating: it gets clearer every day.”

And last week, Mr Putin ramped up his baseless claims that the Ukrainian government has links to the Islamist terrorists who killed at least 137 people at the Moscow Concert Hall last week.

Kyiv has also been under renewed missile attacks from Russian forces in the past two days.

As the war rages on, 80 members of the Adelaide-based regiment are in this British ministry of defence camp to train hundreds of Ukrainians in three specialist tranches of instruction for Ukrainian leaders. The Australians are instructing five-week battle course training modules for section commanders, and platoon and company sergeants, and then 10 weeks with the platoon commanders.

The Australian Defence Force trains Ukrainian soldiers. Picture: Andrew Parsons / Parsons Media

Another 20 Finnish instructors are working alongside the Australians to help skill up the Ukrainians, some as old as 50, who will be redeployed within weeks to the Ukrainian front lines.

The 7th Battalion RAR arrived in January to frosts and frozen ground, but it hasn’t been as cold as the Ukrainian winter.

The Australian Defence Force trains Ukrainian soldiers. Picture: Andrew Parsons / Parsons Media

The UK has now committed more than £7bn ($13.5bn) of military support to help Ukraine defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion, supplying nearly 400,000 artillery shells and more than four million rounds of small-arms ammunition in the past two years. Also in the past two years, 36,000 Ukrainians have received instruction through Operation Interflex in training conducted by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Romania.

The most recent British efforts include training 10 Ukrainian pilots in basic flying, ground school, instrument training and advance formation flying as well as English language skills before they head to France to be specifically trained in flying F-16s.