'It's existential': Ukrainian soldiers get advanced engineering and medical training

With the prolonged war in Ukraine intensifying and no end in sight, the training being provided to Ukrainian soldiers by Canadian Forces personnel is being honed to better reflect the needs on the battlefield.

Operation UNIFIER is the Canadian Armed Forces' military training mission in support of Ukraine. 

Launched a decade ago at the request of the Ukrainian government, following Russia's annexation of Crimea, it was modified three years ago after the Russian invasion.

Canadian troops, along with some NATO partners, provide training on a variety of basic and advanced military skills, including tactical medical training, combat engineering, and leadership skills and education in secret bases across Poland.

"This mission is critically important from an operations perspective. So Russia's illegal war in the Ukraine, if we do not enable the Ukrainians and help and do everything we can to make a difference there, I think that's critical in doing our part," said Lt. Col Chelsea Braybrook, the commander of the UNIFIER mission, in an interview with The Canadian Press in Warsaw.

Braybrook said for the Ukrainians, this is a matter of life or death.

"These are serious people doing serious work. For them, it's existential. I think they take it very seriously. They're very professional," she said.

"These are very patriotic people who care about the future and survival of their country, and I think that's evident when they come to the training."

Prime Minister Mark Carney touted Operation UNIFIER in a speech Sunday, Ukraine's Independence Day, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and hundreds of Ukrainian troops on hand.

"Canada, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, launched Operation Unifier, sending hundreds of Canadian Armed Forces personnel to this country. Since its inception, the Operation UNIFIER has trained over 45,000 members of the Ukrainian Security Forces," Carney said.

"A mission that has unfortunately only grown in importance since that cold February three years ago when Putin renewed his illegal war."

The core training includes engineering, with elite combat engineers skilled in minefield placement and clearing, bridge building, demolitions, field defences, and road and airfield construction, as well as medical procedures. At one point, Ukrainian troops were instructed on using the Leopard tanks provided by Canada.

The new training is getting a revamp at the request of the Ukrainian government.

"On the engineering and medical side, new curriculums are rolling out right now. You have seen a basic sapper-type training, and that has now changed to be a professional sapper-type training," Braybrook said.

"It's the same on the medical side. They went from a kind of basic level of combat casualty care, and they're advancing those skill sets all the time and moving into the space where they're training instructors, so I think over time we can say we're building on the work."

Braybrook said the new advanced engineering training has already begun. The updated program on medical care will be launched next month. 

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick