“Be ready,” shouted the former US Marine. “Threat!” the next bell rings, and a volley echoes around an abandoned quarry on a Ukrainian hillside, just a few kilometers from the front lines of the war. The dust kicked up by the bullets mixes with the sweat of the men in the 30 degree Celsius heat, it begins its Protectionp report.

In the heart of Donbass, a group of eight experienced ex-Western soldiers conducts a 10-day intensive training course for 40 new Ukrainian recruits straight from combat.

With the escalation of hostilities in the east of Ukraine, the military in Donbas suffered heavy losses in a fierce artillery battle. The professional combat team of Ukraine, which has been defending the eastern front line since 2014, is severely depleted. Starting from February 24, new recruits arrived at the front, many of them with very poor training.

The recruits in the courses, aged between 20 and 50, have little equipment: a variety of weapons, uniforms and body armor of varying quality.

One in ten was in the military before the war and received very little training, explains Andy Milburn, founder of the Mozart Group, a new private security company that has taken over the training of Ukrainian soldiers.

Milburn, a retired Marine Corps colonel who spent 31 years in the U.S. Army, assembled volunteer experts to train civilians fighting in Kyiv’s civil defense forces. The Mozart group, which is currently based in Donbas, consists of 20-30 volunteers from the USA, Great Britain, Ireland and other Western countries.

Andy Milburn (Mozart Group)

The name Mozart Group was coined by its members as an ironic musical reference to the Wagner Group, a little-known Russian paramilitary organization often referred to as Vladimir Putin’s private army.

Since 2014, Wagner’s group has been operating in dangerous low-income countries, including Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic, protecting Russian interests without regard for human rights or international law.

“I didn’t want to be associated or compared to the Wagner Group. We are not a counterweight to the Wagner Group; what we do is completely different,” Milburn says.

Funded primarily by private US donors and staffed by vetted recruits, the Mozart Group also delivers humanitarian aid, including sanitation and food, to frontline towns and evacuates vulnerable people from high-risk war zones.

Ukrainian soldiers undergo a five- or ten-day crash course in basic weapons, marksmanship, fire and maneuver, and combat tactics, ideally lasting six months.

First at the front, and only then at training

Instructors have trained thousands of recruits through two translators, which Milburn said is not enough for the mission, but they have struggled to find people with the necessary skills.

“We haven’t been fighting on the front lines yet, but we’ve been in positions that have been bombarded and rocketed,” a 42-year-old soldier who gave himself only the call sign “Bison” told The Guardian. firing practice wearing a used British camouflage tunic with a Union Jack badge sewn onto the sleeve.

Ukrainian troops are training close to the front line because their commanders cannot risk soldiers being out of action for too long if the Russians try to advance. Ideally, these groups should be training 100 to 120 people at a time, but they can’t afford to lose their positions, Milburn says.

“It’s the other way around: you don’t go into battle first and then come back to train,” says one instructor. “The Ukrainian government does not want to say that most of their army is not really trained. But they are trying to fight the Russians, who, fortunately, are also not trained,” he adds.

“They don’t complain and have a sense of humor”

“This is how it should have been during the First World War,” said Alex (not his real name), speaking to The Guardian by phone from Bulgaria. Alex is a former British soldier who took a break but said he plans to return to help out permanently.

“These are men 36, 37 years old, four months ago these guys were taxi drivers or farmers. None of them want to join the army, but they say that our country has been taken over. What do you expect from us? Great respect for them. But it is very sad , to be honest,” says Alex.

But what the bands lack in experience, they make up for with enthusiasm and determination. “They’re upbeat, they listen, they’re attentive, and most of all, they have a great sense of humor,” Milburn says, analyzing the training exercise.

“They don’t complain, they get everything and give 100%,” agrees Datan. (full on The Guardian)

Photo: Hurricanehank, Dreamstime.com

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