Ukrainian Army Exercises Using Soviet Tanks, Head Of The European Union's Special Training Command: Becomes A Russian Trap

JAKARTA - Soviet-era tanks borrowed from museums helped train Ukrainian troops about what EU training mission commanders for Kyiv said were the trap tactics used by Russian soldiers on the battlefield.

Outletes from 17 countries have trained about 18,000 Ukrainian soldiers in Germany to operate tank high-specification or precision air defense systems, passing their skills on to snipers, technicians, paramedics and to unmanned aircraft warfare.

However, with the Russian and Ukrainian soldiers releasing thousands of bullets each day in a tiring battle that echoed the First World War trench war, Ukraine is also seeking training in a situation that further represents the reality of the battlefield as well as in some of its old equipment.

The German military excavated a ditch system according to Russian standards, borrowing Soviet tanks from museums to improve the experience of Ukrainian troops on the ground in several of its training sites.

"This (museum) system is used on the Russian side, and sometimes they set traps in abandoned equipment," Lieutenant General Andreas Marlow, head of the European Union's Special Training Command near Berlin, told Reuters.

"Providing such vehicles in training makes it easier to show where to be careful to ensure that you don't trigger an explosion if you find it on the battlefield and open the door," he explained.

However, the training command declined to elaborate further on where the tanks were borrowed, or how much was used.

The command is part of a European Union military mission set up in 2022 to train Ukrainian troops in fighting the Russian invasion.

On Friday, the mission was extended to two more years, when Ukrainian troops faced advanced Russian troops at the fastest speed since the start of the war.

Part of the training in Germany now also involves studying the Russian trench system, which Lieutenant General Marlow says is usually built with a fixed scheme.

"It's about the shape of the ditch, where shelters and weapons positions are expected," he said.

The instructors are not just seeking inspiration from the past. Modern simulators have been used to train Ukrainian units in combat shootings, as well as high-tech dolls that provide more complicated cases to combat medics.

At the same time, drones are now playing a much larger role in training, teaching surveillance techniques and raising awareness of the continued dangers posed by enemy drones floating in the sky, Lieutenant General Marlow said.

Moscow and Kyiv are both trying to buy and develop new drones, deploy them in an innovative way and find new ways to destroy them.