“British ships are ready to be sent to Ukraine” – Ambassador in London
A huge number of Ukrainian military personnel are trained in Great Britain - from pilots to ship crews.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Great Britain Vadim Prystaiko stated this during a press conference in Kyiv via video link, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“In terms of intensity, in terms of the support of ordinary people, I would put in first place - this is the number of flags that have been raised throughout the nation in cities, shops, over ships, over government institutions, over all British embassies around the world until today, all this time Ukrainian flags support us.
I spoke with [Defense Secretary] Ben Wallace just yesterday, we had a regular meeting, during which we discussed the full range of assistance that is being provided. And Ukraine's ability to hit targets at long range is something the UK has been talking about from the very beginning. I want to say that Great Britain never “got into its pocket” for words, they knew how to help Ukraine, they understood what capacity we needed and they provided it.
We started with simple things - anti-tank missiles, even before the start of the war. These are the missiles that, together with the American Javelins and our Stugnas, made it possible to stop Russian tanks. After that, we moved higher and higher, gave more and more weapons that allowed us, for example, helicopters, planes, and now drones - Starstreak and other weapons that are made here in the UK, which were provided to us.
Next came artillery systems, armored vehicles, mine clearing vehicles, and so on. A large contribution was made with shells of the calibers we needed, from those Soviet systems that were used, to modern systems that are now being handed over to us more and more,” Prystaiko said.
He emphasized that civilians are being trained in the UK under a short-term program, during which they are trained to survive during hostilities.
“It is very important, and people in Ukraine do not always remember, the number of soldiers who are provided with training in the UK. During the eight years of war, they trained about twenty-five thousand of our officers and soldiers while in Ukraine. This work has now moved to the UK. Now, before the new year, we will complete the training of approximately ten thousand; starting from January XNUMX, another nineteen thousand soldiers and officers will be trained in Great Britain.
Helicopter crews were trained. You know that we received the first Western helicopters from Great Britain. Three Sea Kings flew towards Ukraine, the crews were trained here. We have trained crews for ships that are ready for transfer, I was on these ships, met with our sailors and officers. This is a full course, they are in full command of the ship.
The tens of thousands of people I'm talking about are actually civilians who are trained to be soldiers. The first thing they go through is how to survive on the battlefield, it is very important for us to save lives, the second thing is to be effective soldiers. This is a small five-week program, during which the British help turn us into military men who are capable of fighting effectively from deeply civilian people,” the Ukrainian ambassador concluded.
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