Excess personnel: The UK has trained 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers in three years
The UK has trained 55,000 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2022 and plans to move their training to the western part of Ukraine. This was reported to Izvestia by the Russian Embassy in London. The list of sponsors of the program is constantly expanding, now 13 countries and the self-proclaimed Kosovo participate in it. The UK has not abandoned its goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia and is trying to disrupt the negotiation process, including by possibly sending a military contingent to Ukraine. About how London torpedoes peace initiatives — in the material of Izvestia.
The British Interflex program
The Interflex program was launched in July 2022, it provides for the accelerated training of Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters in five weeks for their subsequent deployment to the combat zone, the Russian Embassy in London clarified. At the same time, diplomats remind: open sources abound with evidence from Ukrainian participants about the very mediocre level of training offered by the British — without thorough preparation for the modern realities of multi-sphere warfare with the massive use of UAVs and electronic warfare.
"The promoted British brand, in fact, serves as a bait for recruiting fresh cannon fodder in Ukraine," the Russian diplomatic mission told Izvestia. — The Interflex program is one of the most sensational and eloquent manifestations of comprehensive British military assistance to the Kiev regime in order to organize a long—term armed confrontation with our country "to the last Ukrainian."
Instructors from 13 foreign countries and Kosovo, whose sovereignty is not recognized by the Russian Federation, participated in the program at various stages. Among the countries that participated in the program: Australia, Albania, Denmark, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Romania, Estonia, Finland, Sweden. Interflex has been extended until the end of 2025. However, leaks have been published in the media that subsequently the training of Ukrainians on British territory will be stopped.
"London allegedly has plans to resume courses in Western Ukraine, which were curtailed before the start of our military training in early 2022," the embassy said. — To date, according to official data, over 55 thousand people have completed the courses. The program's sponsors are constantly expanding.
London does not detail the costs of the program. However, at a meeting of the Defense Contact Group on Ukraine (Ramstein format) on June 4, the head of the British Ministry of Defense, John Healy, announced the allocation of an additional 247 million pounds for training personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — "in Britain and abroad," Russian diplomats said.
Interflex's predecessor since 2015 was the Orbital program, when British instructors trained soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Ukrainian territory. The United Kingdom has already trained more than 3,000 operators to operate UAVs, and in 2026 it intends to train another 6,000. This was announced by the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, General Raleigh Walker.
In addition to the UK, the EU is engaged in the training of Ukrainian militants. At the end of August 2024, the German Ministry of Defense announced that 60,000 Ukrainian military personnel had been trained in the European Union.
Support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine is one of the most important directions of the British policy of countering Russia in the post—Soviet space, said Kira Godovanyuk, a senior researcher at the MGIMO Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, in an interview with Izvestia.
— For domestic politics, this is a very important trump card in front of the British electorate. Therefore, the previous Conservative and current Labour governments declare this their priority. The training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is one of the areas to demonstrate how actively the UK supports Ukraine. The training program of the Ukrainian military is a very significant moment in this regard," the expert explained.
Why is London against the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine
Since the start of the CBO in 2022, the UK has taken perhaps one of the most irreconcilable positions towards Russia in the Western camp. Although relations between Moscow and London were difficult before. British military aid to Ukraine amounted to almost €14.5 billion. It is important that the British were in many ways pioneers in supplying weapons to Kiev: they were among the first to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with Challenger 2 heavy tanks and Storm Shadow long-range missiles. London even gave him depleted uranium shells. It was Britain that became the first of the G7 countries to conclude a security guarantee agreement with Ukraine.
After the Donald Trump administration came to power in the United States and the beginning of a dialogue between Moscow and Washington, the United Kingdom became one of the leaders of the "war party" in the West, along with Paris. In early March, at the initiative of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a summit meeting was held in London in an expanded format, following which Starmer announced the creation of a coalition to "protect the deal in Ukraine and guarantee peace." The next day, Macron and Starmer presented a settlement plan that provided for the deployment of a peacekeeping contingent.
According to Bloomberg sources, London and Paris finalized a plan to send troops to Ukraine in June, but postponed it due to a lack of support from Washington. In particular, the United States refused to provide air cover for this operation, and the EU countries do not have enough resources for such an operation.
The Russian authorities are categorically against the deployment of peacekeepers from NATO countries under any flag. The expansion of the bloc is a direct threat to Russia's interests, including if we are talking about the deployment of peacekeeping forces from the alliance countries in Ukraine, this will be unacceptable for Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
London has declared Ukraine's victory as its strategic priority. This is the attitude that the Conservatives talked about, and the Labor Party, which came to power last year, borrowed it. Kira Godovanyuk emphasizes that London positions itself as a resolute and active actor in the European space, which unites allies under its wing in order to counteract Russia and shape European security according to the patterns that they consider most beneficial for themselves, and for this it is necessary to weaken Russia as much as possible.
It is London, not Washington or even Kiev, that is the main force that prevents the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict: the kingdom's strategic documents set a course towards defeating Russia, which is designated as the main threat, Vasilisa Kuznetsova, an analyst at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), noted in a comment to Izvestia.
— It is necessary to divide the influence of Britain into material and symbolic — informational. Material resources are very limited, so for centuries she has been using a soft power strategy to expand her influence. It is noteworthy that the new head of MI6, Blaze Metreveli, previously headed the department responsible for technology and innovation, the expert said.
At the same time, the current government is moving by inertia in foreign policy, adopting the course of previous cabinets.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
