On January 25 the first 18-strong group of Lithuanian Armed Forces instructors left for the United Kingdom from Zokniai airfield to join Operation Interflex for the training Ukrainian military. The troops were farewelled by Commander of the Training nad Doctrine Command Brig Gen Alvydas Šiuparis. Lithuania has been contributing to Interflex sinec the autumn of 2022 and following the plan of deploying 8 rotations of Lithuanian military instructors. The training is conducted in UK infrastructure.
The Lithuanian Armed Forces is starting an intense training cycle conducted for the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of the second half of January. It will be delivered at the Lithuanian Land, Air and Special Operations Forces, through courses conducted by the Military Police and the Training and Doctrine Command, as well as joint course with the UK, Germany and the Nordic countries, tailored to prepare Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain the transferred weaponry, equipment and gear, as well as to train commanding officers of different levels and different subject-matter specialists.
At the moment Ukrainian troops are undergoing 60 mm mortar training and MP instructor training courses in Lithuanian Armed Forces units.
Interflex is a British-led multinational military training mission for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It has replaced Operation Orbital conducted by the UK alone for training the Ukrainian military from 2015 to June 2022. The Interflex instructor training capacity has been expanded as the effort was joined by seven partners of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) and Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It has trained up to 10 thousand Ukrainian troops over 2022.
Photo credit: SSgt Spc Ieva Budzeikaitė |Lithuanian Armed Forces
