Ukrainian Troops Training in UK to Use Armored Vehicles: Boris Johnson

• The UK has begun training Ukrainian soldiers on home soil, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
• The Ukrainian troops are being taught to use Britain’s 120 armored vehicles donated to Ukraine.
• NATO member states recently pledged to give Ukraine sophisticated weapons systems and artillery.

Ukrainian soldiers are being trained in the UK, where they will be taught to use armored vehicles donated by the British government, said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“I can say that we are currently training Ukrainians in Poland in the use of anti-aircraft defence, and actually in the UK in the use of armored vehicles,” Johnson revealed while on his trip to India, The Guardian reported Thursday.

According to the outlet, the UK has pledged to ship 120 armored patrol vehicles to Ukraine, 80 of which are mobility vehicles such as the Mastiff and the Wolfhound. These vehicles serve “combat, combat support, and combat service roles,” the outlet reported, citing the British army.

The other 40 include ambulances, armored command vehicles, and combat reconnaissance vehicles, The Guardian reported.

A spokesperson for Johnson told Reuters that the training of Ukrainian troops on UK soil was part of a move to give new types of advanced military equipment to Ukraine that its soldiers had never used before.

“It is only sensible that they get requisite training to make best use of it,” the spokesperson said, per Reuters. 

Meanwhile, the US has also said it would give Ukraine dozens of howitzers — a form of long-range artillery — and anti-tank “Switchblade” drones designed to crash into a target and explode. 

In a Monday press briefing, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that the US will train Ukrainian soldiers on how to use the howitzers.

“They understand how to use artillery, and it won’t — we don’t believe will take very long or require much detailed training to get them up to speed on American howitzers,” Kirby said, adding that the training would take place outside Ukraine.

The new promises of military aid have signaled increased Western involvement in the war. NATO member states have recently offered tanks, advanced air defense missiles, heavy artillery, and coastal defense systems to Kyiv.

“We are always conscious of anything perceived to be escalatory but clearly what is escalatory is the actions of Putin’s regime,” Johnson’s spokesperson told Reuters.