The third rotation of Lithuanian military instructors is coming to an end at Operation Interflex for training Ukrainian military personnel and prepares to head home. Over 32 000 fighters have been trained since the beginning of Operation Interflecx in the United Kingdom. Lithuanian instructors have provided training for approx. 2300 Ukrainian military personnel in 2023, 500 of them at Operation Interflex. The mission is designed to equip members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with basic expertise and skills, especially tactics in populated areas and entrenchments, also in tactical medicine and engineering. The theoretical knowledge and skills are built in realistic training and tactical exercises.
The team of instructors deployed to the training mission six months ago includes 5 servicemembers with the Division General Stasys Raštikis Lithuanian Armed Forces School, five troops of the General Adolfas Ramanauskas Warfare Training Centre , two – of the Lithuanian Great Hetman Jonušas Radvila Training Regiment and one member of the MD Jonas Basanavičius Military Medical Service. Lithuanian instructors were for six months training Ukrainian colleagues, improved training quality and strengthened contacts with Canadian, UK and Ukrainian militaries at different meetings.
Over the course of this rotation Lithuanian instructors and Ukrainian trainees were familiarized with the 4 GD Training Systems complex that enhanced combat training effectiveness and realism and provided mistake overview and learning opportunity afterwards. Commander of the Lithuanian instructor contingent Maj Kęstutis Čekavičius and Platoon Commander Lt Col Paulius Rakauskas attended an Interflex Training Symposium to share experience and expert assessment in order to further improve and optimize basic training of the Ukrainian servicemembers in the UK, as well as to bring lessons learned to Lithuania.
The Lithuanian Armed Forces has plans to further take part in Operation Interflex and the EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) and to contribute to the basic military training for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Lithuanian military instructors are assisting with the training effort for the Ukrainians in approx. 50 separate programmes.
Photo credit: Lithuanian Armed Forces
