Yuri Kobzar23:21, 24.12.25

After Ukrainians began training in Britain, the British had to hastily adapt their training program to the realities of real war.

Ukrainian fighters act much more cautiously and therefore slower on the battlefield, which noticeably distinguishes them from soldiers of Western armies , who are accustomed to the cavalry pace of advance on the front line. A former British instructor who identified himself as Major Maguire told Business Insider in an interview  .

A British officer helped train Ukrainians at training grounds in the UK. Since not all Ukrainians were green recruits, and many of them already had some combat experience, Maguire noticed a “difference in mentality” between Ukrainians and Britons.

According to Maguire, some Western instructors working with Ukrainian soldiers initially considered their students “a little lazy” because they insisted on moving slowly. However, the reason is different: in a real war with the Russians, the Ukrainians have learned that caution is more important than speed.

For example, it takes Ukrainian soldiers a long time to get through a door in a house they’re clearing. “They’ll be looking for wires, checking absolutely everything on them,” Maguire says.

His experience interacting with Ukrainian veterans showed that Ukrainian soldiers did not move to the next house “until they had suppressed and checked every potential firing point, position, mine. They would not move until they had adjusted the drones or artillery to do that.”

Maguire said the British instructors were a bit impatient because the mentality was, “You go, let’s do it,” but that attitude changed as they talked to and learned from the Ukrainians. He said they realized the “take your time” approach was actually “pretty good.”

Despite their caution and slowness, the Ukrainians have a “better understanding of what it takes to win” and a “sheer determination” to fight the enemy. A British instructor noted that the Ukrainians he trained had arrived straight from “fierce fighting,” displaying a level of instinctive aggression and combat readiness unseen by the British military.

According to Maguire, the program of training Ukrainians in Britain was actually two-way. Since many Ukrainians already had combat experience at the time of their participation, they taught a lot to the British instructors themselves. This was taken into account when training subsequent groups of Ukrainians and the British troops themselves. 

“There are things they are much better at than us,” said the British military man.

(C)UNIAN 2025