The UK, Norway, Germany and France, as well as other European Union states, have offered military training for Ukrainian soldiers and officers since the beginning of Russia's war in Ukraine three years ago.

One of them, who asked DW to use his combat name Mara, is deployed with the 114th Brigade of Ukraine's Territorial Defense against Russia's war of aggression.

Mara completed two months of basic training in France in 2023.

"But Western trainers sometimes don't understand the kind of war we're fighting," he told DW. "They are used to fighting terrorists who don't have tanks, artillery or drones."

The soldier would have preferred training with drones and in tactical medicine.

He also thought that the exercise to set up and dismantle a tent camp was unnecessary. "Nobody does that in Ukraine, everyone sits in shelters," he explains.

"When the artillery fire starts, we immediately hide in the holes and don't take down tents first," Mara said.

In contrast, the shooting exercises were particularly useful. "Both at night with vision devices as well as with obstacles and in urban areas," the soldier said.

He was also impressed by the exercise to escape from captivity in a town that was specifically built for training purposes.

"There were bare buildings and ruins, in other words, conditions that really resembled those in Ukraine," Mara told........

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