Experienced Ukrainian soldiers are showing their Western instructors their battlefield creativity forged by years of war, even as some of these same troops still need help with basic military skills like shooting straight.
Ukrainian soldiers are learning Western ways of war at Camp Jomsborg in Poland. The Norway-led training aims to strengthen fundamental fighting, leadership, and planning skills. But the exchange runs both ways. Trainers say the Ukrainians also bring innovative modern warfare solutions to the table.
Brigadier Atle Molde, the commander of Task Force Legio, the multinational command supporting the training of Ukraine’s armed forces, told Business Insider that the Ukrainian ability to “improvise in a very pressed situation is nothing but admirable.”
“It’s astonishing,” he said. “It’s how they’re able to improvise, adapt, fix things, develop, evolve, change.”
He said those talents are “something to bring back home and learn from,” as Norway studies Ukraine’s battlefield experience for lessons it can apply to its own military. Other Western partners are increasingly working directly with Ukraine for the same reason, looking to improve parts of their own warfighting ability as they prepare for the possibility of a wider conflict with Russia.
Jørgen, a Norwegian Army instructor for the camp’s platoon leader course who asked to be identified only by his first name, said that “in general, they are much more creative than we are able to be.” He attributed that in part to Ukraine having fewer standardized procedures than its partners. “I think that’s a strength.”
Officers with other training programs, such as the UK-led Operation Interflex, have likewise praised Ukrainian creativity, saying that they often have “much greater tactical imagination.”
But that battlefield ingenuity at times coexists with gaps in basic military skills.
Needing the fundamentals
“I’ll give you one specific example,” Molde said. “We have had soldiers from Ukraine with two years of battlefield experience that cannot shoot their rifle straight
Some were mobilized quickly without the kind of foundational training that Western militaries typically provide. Small arms also play a much more limited role on the battlefield dominated by artillery and drones, so real-world experience may not be high.
Maj. John, the S3 Operations Officer who helps coordinate training at the camp, told Business Insider that the Ukrainians “have shown us a lot of different creative methods.”
But, “at the same time, that conventional knowledge in some units has not been that great,” he added, speaking on the condition that only his rank and first name be used.
“Ukrainian soldiers who arrive at Jomsborg have varying levels of skills and experience,” NATO said in a description of the camp. Some are “hardened combat veterans looking to learn advanced tactics,” while others are troops who need “infantry combat skills.”
“At the very least, trainees receive thorough instruction in marksmanship under stress, effective combat communication and platoon- and company-level infantry movements,” it said.
Concerns have long been raised about the level of basic training given to Ukrainian soldiers, especially early in the war as masses of inexperienced troops were mobilized and surged toward the front, putting much of the training burden on front-line commanders. They found that many of the newly mobilized soldiers lacked fundamentals, such as marksmanship and maneuver.
Ukraine extended its basic training to 51 days last year, with an emphasis on shooting and counter-drone tactics. “It is worth noting the level of marksmanship training: 137 hours of practice and 56 firing exercises with various weapons,” the Ministry of Defense wrote in its description. “Mandatory training also includes countermeasures against enemy UAVs.”
Still, basic skills may be unevenly distributed.
An exchange of skills
The Ukrainians, John said, “are innovative. They use new technologies. We try to learn off that. And then we try to give them competencies with regard to the conventional methods, planning methods, military decision-making processes, and so on.
Together, he said, that “creates a good result.”
John said that while Ukraine excels in many areas, the extensive military experience that Western partners bring “still has a value.”
Ukraine’s combat experiences are built into the camp training because, as Molde said, it would be “stupid” not to. Ukraine has been at war with Russia for years, intensely since the 2022 full-scale invasion but even before that in the Donbas. They understand Russian tactics, and they understand modern warfare.
John said the camp is considered a Ukrainian facility, with Ukraine determining its training needs and Ukrainian instructors work alongside Western ones.
Molde said it makes sense that Ukraine is often more creative than its partners. War forces rapid innovation. Throughout military history, “the innovation wheel goes very slowly in peacetime. And when a war occurs, then suddenly this rotation is 10 times, 100 times as fast,” he said.
That leaves Camp Jomsborg with an unusual training dynamic. Ukrainians bring lessons learned from a fast-changing war, while Western partners offer conventional military expertise that some Ukrainian units never had time to build.
Molde said both groups can “evolve in parallel.”
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