Western trainers are trying to recreate Ukraine’s battlefields on NATO soil to make training for its soldiers as realistic as possible. Ukrainian troops are key to helping them get it right.
Western militaries are training Ukrainian soldiers at a purpose-built facility in Poland as part of Norway-led Operation Legio. Its shooting ranges, trench networks, tank fields, and urban and rural fighting positions were designed to mirror the battlefield, with and against the kind of warfighting equipment they face in combat.
Maj. John, the S3 Operations Officer in charge of synchronizing the overall training operation, told Business Insider at the camp that the goal is to recreate the terrain in Ukraine, the kinds of tactics and equipment that Russia uses, and the way both sides fight.
Ukraine’s needs and battlefield experience shaped the training from the start, with Ukrainian officials emphasizing realism in early meetings, John said. He asked to only be identified by his first name for security reasons.
One of the last things that happened before the first training rotation began last year was a meeting “to see how we can conduct this training as realistically as possible,” he said. The Ukrainian verdict on the training was that “this is not good enough.”
“We had to revise and change the training program and then fit it to their current operational needs,” John said.
The camp’s location helps keep the feedback loop short. It is roughly two hours from the Ukrainian border, enabling them “to have a very direct dialogue with our Ukrainian partners,” John said.
Ukraine’s battlefield experience sits at the heart of the operation. John described it as a “Ukrainian training center.” Ukraine determines what its troops need, Ukrainian instructors teach alongside Western trainers, and experienced soldiers feed lessons from the war directly into the curriculum.
That setup, he said, means Ukrainians can “hold us accountable for quality and delivering that realistic training.”
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Trenches, tanks, and tactics
Trenches have been dug deep into the Polish landscape, modeled on those in Ukraine. The trenches are “constructed by the Ukrainians, or they have told us how to construct it” to resemble the real ones as much as possible, Brigadier Atle Molde, the commander of Task Force Legio, told Business Insider.
The trench network has been “changed a couple of times already, and we’ve only been active for less than a year,” he added.
Leaders want to keep the camp up to date with the rapidly changing fight. Ukrainian commanders and instructors are embedded there, with new ones arriving each training rotation, providing examples of what works and what does not, and what needs to change.
Part of “trying to resemble frontline realities” is ensuring that soldiers train with the same gear they would use on the battlefield.
“We have a very close dialogue with our Ukrainian counterparts on what kind of equipment the individual soldier has, from assault rifles to night vision goggles to thermal sights,” John said. “We try to resemble equipment the same as every other variable down here.”
Drones are used extensively in training. Western militaries are not teaching Ukrainians to pilot them, since Ukraine’s military is already highly skilled at that. But the training field wouldn’t be realistic without them.
Drones so ubiquitous in Ukraine and have reshaped so much of the combat that they have to be baked into the planning and execution of training exercises in Poland.
The training also uses ground robots, which Ukraine is using in growing numbers and shaping its doctrine for. In this case, Molde said, it is the Ukrainians who “are teaching us.”
Western soldiers are also using tanks, armored vehicles, and motorcycles in training, acting as a designated opposition force that is designed to “resemble how the enemy fights on the front line,” John said. The idea is to make sure that the Ukrainians “are exposed to those same scenarios that they will meet when they go back.”
The trainers try to reproduce the sensations of combat, too. Laser simulation systems register hits, while small explosive charges mimic incoming attacks.
“When a drone has an impact, we also have a demolition charge in the ground so it actually explodes,” John said. At the site, “we have a very practical assessment and approach to risk. So risk is not a theoretical thing. It’s real.”
A training site can never truly recreate the chaos, risk, and fear of a real battlefield, but the aim is to get as close as possible.
Jørgen, a Norwegian Army instructor for the operation’s platoon leader course, told Business Insider that the Ukrainians share stories “to help us understand how it actually looks and how it actually works.”
The goal isn’t necessarily to recreate everything perfectly, “but we should try to give realistic experiences that everyone on the course can actually bring back to the war.”
The effort to deliver realism also extends beyond terrain and equipment to how Ukrainian units actually operate. John said that when the Western trainers first designed the platoon leader course, “it was based on the Norwegian platoon leader.” But Ukraine organizes and employs its forces differently.
The course was altered to combine Western best practices with the realities of Ukrainian operations. John said they made “small tweaks to get it as realistic and designed for the Ukrainian context as possible.”
The training program is careful not to override the battle-tested experience of Ukrainian soldiers and commanders. In some areas of warfare, the trainers acknowledge, Ukraine now has more experience than the trainers do. Norway, in turn, is taking lessons tactics and equipment back to its own military.
The goal, John said, is to give soldiers Western best practices combined with their own knowledge to increase their “lethality and survivability,” helping Ukraine continue the fight or ultimately negotiate on its own terms.
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