Russian invasion: For love of country, Ukrainians put their lives on the line
t was 4:25am when I woke up, went out to have a smoke and I started hearing gunshots,” said Volodymyr, one of the Ukrainians currently undergoing military training in the United Kingdom to return home to defend their country. Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014.
The invasion was the largest attack on a European country since World War II and is estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties.
By June 2022, Russian troops had occupied about 20% of Ukrainian territory while about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
Volodymyr, a carpenter before the war, lives in a border town with Russia. His village was one of the first to be captured by the Russians who told him that he was living too well. “‘You have all the facilities in your house, it’s too good for you.’”
“So, they were occupying all the houses in the town,” he told Daily Trust in an interview in one of the camps in the UK where civilian Ukrainians are getting basic military training ahead of deployment back home on the front line by the Ukrainian military.
Volodymyr who spoke through an interpreter said everything has stopped in his town since that day, saying: “Schools stopped, work stopped, everything collapsed. Nothing is working. No light, no money, no gas supply, everything was destroyed.”
He said his family was hiding in the basement for close to four months for fear of being killed. Volodymyr had his own house before the war but the house had since been taken over by the Russian army.
“Before the war, I was doing well with my family. I didn’t ask the Russians to come. I was born in Siberia. We didn’t ask anyone to come and liberate us.
“When they were leaving, they left with everything in my house. They loaded them inside their trucks and left, Volodymyr lamented.
He has now decided to join the army and fight “the enemy”.
Over 32000 Ukrainian civilians have so far undergone military training since June 2022 by the United Kingdom and its partners to equip them to defend their country against the Russian invasion.
The governments of Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, the Netherlands and
Romania have all committed to this operation at several locations across the UK.
The Commander of Operation Interflex - the command responsible for the training of the Ukrainian infantry soldiers, Colonel James Thurstan, said the programme is designed to equip the Ukrainians with the basics of warfare.
“It also gives them the defensive spirit to win the war and go ahead to establish the international boundaries,” the Operation Interflex Commander said.
“The training will give volunteer recruits with little to no military experience, the skills to be effective in frontline combat.
“Based on the UK’s basic soldier training, the course covers weapon-handling, battlefield first aid, fieldcraft, patrol tactics and the Law of Armed Conflict,” according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.
The recruits are trained for five weeks in five different camps in the UK before returning to Ukraine for immediate deployment to the frontline.
According to Colonel Thurstan, there are some 3000 Ukrainians currently undergoing different training exercises under the Operation Interflex programme.
“In the training, I learnt how to fight and defend my country. I have three kids; I don’t want my kids to suffer. I want to fight the enemy”, said Volodymyr.
A return to the battlefield
On his part, Artem, a 28-yearold factory worker before the war told Daily Trust through an interpreter that he decided to join the army to defend his country despite his ill-health.
A Russian sniper shot him in the face in March 2023 but that wouldn’t stop him from returning to the battlefield.
“I joined the army because I needed to fight for my country. I am not that healthy but I decide to join the army.
“I was injured after a Russian snipper hit me. I was told I won’t be able to join the army but here I am again.
“I have a girlfriend. I planned to get married but everything failed once the war started. All the plans are set aside, unfortunately.
“All of us men, we need to train hard to fight for our country. We are not intending to escape from all of these. We try to stay alive as long as possible to take what belongs to us.
“I can’t afford to just go back home and do nothing while my mates are dying. So, no matter how it feels, one must die.
“If I was lucky enough, of course, I want to survive, I want to live. I will do everything possible to defeat the enemies,” he said.
On his part, Igor, a 33-yearold procurement manager at an international company before the war, said he joined the army to protect his family.
“Do you have a wife; do you have kids? If your neighbour comes to your house and wants to kill you and your family, what will you do? You will try to protect them. That is why I have joined the army,” he said.
“I think it is the right decision to join the army. My wife is doing her best to help a lot of injured soldiers, she is medical personnel.”
Ukraine making headways UK
The United Kingdom (UK) has disclosed that with its support, Ukraine has been making headways in the fight against Russia despite recent drone attacks on Kyiv.
Since the invasion in February 2022, the UK government has committed to supporting Ukraine and is the second largest military to donate to Ukraine, with a commitment of £2.3 billion in 2022, and a further £2.3 billion in 2023.
In October 2023, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps announced a major new package of equipment support for Ukraine worth over £100 million including air defence systems, crucial equipment to help Ukrainian soldiers cross minefields, and bridging capabilities to assist with river and trench crossings.
While addressing foreign journalists in London, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), said the UK alongside its partners would continue to support Ukraine to defend itself.
“Ukraine has made progress and it’s important to note that it has recaptured almost half of the territory that Russia illegally seized since the beginning of this conflict.
“Russia has been unable to defend several places across the landfront,” it said.
It said Ukraine had also made some strategic gains away from the land front, saying it had destroyed many Russian ships, regained a part of the Black Sea and forced Russia to take a different tactical approach to the war.
“The toll of the war against Russia is striking, the Russian forces are weakening at a significant rate.
“Russia has suffered between 240000 to 290000 casualties which is more than what they suffered in 10 years of Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
“Russia also lost a huge amount of equipment in the process,” according to the FCDO.
The UK government said to continue to prosecute the war, Russia is making deals with countries which it had previously sanctioned as a member of the UN Security Council.
It emphasised the need for countries and international organisations to increase the pressure on Russia to end its assault on Ukraine, saying Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s aggression on Ukraine will create a bad precedence if allowed to stand.
Also, the UK government said it would continue to starve Putin of the funds he needs to prosecute his war on Ukraine.
The UK said it, along with its partners, had issued many sanctions against Russia which had reduced the impact of its war on Ukraine.
Russia/Ukraine factsheet
• Russia has lost almost 12,000 pieces of equipment, including 2268 tanks over 4000 other armoured vehicles, 247 command and control systems, over 1000 artillery pieces, almost 200 air defence systems, 85 aircraft and 103 helicopters.
• Russia’s oil export earnings hit the lowest monthly value in June 2023 since the beginning of their invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s oil export revenues fell to EUR 397m per day in June 2023, 7% lower than May and 16% below April levels.
• Ukraine has lost about 6m hectares (~24%) of arable land due to occupation, mine contamination and other environmental impacts of war (e.g. destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam).
• Russian attacks destroyed over 300,000 tonnes of grain in two months, enough to feed over 1.25 million people for a year.
• Russia has destroyed more grain in the month since withdrawing from the BSGI than all of the grain it has promised to donate for free to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and the Central African Republic combined.
• £20 billion of UK-Russia bilateral trade (2021 figures) is now under full or partial sanction. There has been a 99% fall in Russian imports into the UK, and a 72% fall in UK exports to Russia.
• As of April 2023, the Ukrainian government has identified over 19,546 children forcibly transferred by Russian forces to Russia and temporarily Russian-controlled territory in vast numbers.