Western allies continue to provide combat training for Ukrainian volunteers and conscripts to help Kyiv in its war against the much larger Russian army. DW's Rosie Birchard reports from an undisclosed location in the United Kingdom.
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00:00These green pastures may look peaceful, but this is the path to a crash course in warfare.
00:07We're on our way to meet and to find out about Ukrainian soldiers who are being trained here in the UK.
00:13We can't tell you exactly where we are for security reasons and we can't show any of the Ukrainian troops' faces.
00:19That's because we've been told that Russia uses facial recognition technology to try and identify and then target Ukrainian soldiers.
00:27A few weeks ago, many of these men had never held guns.
00:31They were ordinary Ukrainians caught up in a conflict Russia started.
00:35Now, on British soil, they're being trained to kill.
00:39They came to kill us, we must learn to kill the enemy.
00:43This is Operation Interflex, a five-week training programme that transforms Ukrainian civilians into soldiers.
00:51It's delivered by trainers from the UK and a dozen other countries including Canada, Norway and the Netherlands.
00:57In those states, basic infantry training can take up to a year and many involved are teenagers.
01:03But here the average age is 35.
01:06These are men with mortgages, families and regular jobs facing a rapid gear shift.
01:11I've never had to deal with physical exertion.
01:15My past work didn't involve any exercise, so now it's a bit challenging physically.
01:20But everything is OK.
01:24The hardest thing is knowing that my wife is very scared for me, that she is worried and very afraid to be alone.
01:31I never left her for more than two or three days in my past job.
01:37Some of those delivering the training, like this Ukrainian army psychologist, have already seen active combat
01:43and know all too well what lies ahead.
01:47It's hard to see when your friends die.
01:52Have you seen friends die?
01:54Yeah.
01:58This lesson in assaulting building infrastructure under fire is one of this cohort's last.
02:04For now this is just a drill.
02:06The Ukrainian new recruits are safe and these are only blank rounds.
02:10But in just a week or so they'll be facing the real thing.
02:13Some are already shipping out to the front line.
02:17Before departure, soldiers get a final briefing, a blast of their national anthem
02:25and a donated kit bag filled with everything from deodorant and boots to life-saving equipment for battle injuries.
02:32The most important part that you're going to be looking at is the tourniquets, obviously of catastrophic bleed.
02:37That could only be from a mine, gunshot wound, shrapnel.
02:42British Army medic Sergeant McDonnell takes care of the final preparations.
02:46How do you feel when you wave them off? I mean, they're going to war.
02:53How can you answer that?
02:54Yeah, I'm going to a nice safe warm bed. I can go out for a weekend.
02:57They can't. They're there. This is their war. This is their country.
03:01They're there and there is no respite from it.
03:04So if we can do anything to help them make their lives a bit easier or a bit better or a bit safer, let's do it.
03:11This program is funded until the end of 2025. After that, nobody knows.
03:18We're in such a time, both in the world and in Ukraine, that it's very difficult to plan, to predict any events.
03:25So we're focusing more on the present.
03:28And for those here, that means focusing on their target and learning how and when to pull the trigger.