The Minister of Defense of Great Britain, Grant Shepps, said in an interview with The Telegraph that he held negotiations with the leadership of the army about the transfer of part of the "training and production" of military equipment to Ukraine. He also called on British defense firms to open factories in Ukraine, citing BAE as an example.
NATO members, in particular Britain, did not conduct formal training programs in Ukraine due to the risk of escalation with the Russian Federation. However, Shepps now plans to "eventually bring the training closer" to Ukraine and move it there.
Shepps also suggested that Britain would play a more active role in helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian attacks on civilian commercial vessels in the Black Sea. He personally discussed this with Volodymyr Zelenskyi during his visit to Kyiv.
The newspaper believes that such rhetoric of the Minister of Defense shows a change in the governmentʼs approach to the public discussion of increasing military aid to Ukraine. France took a similar step when it announced surveillance of the Black Sea.
Earlier it became known that at the beginning of 2023, about 50 Britons took part in the Russian-Ukrainian war in Western special forces. The British government did not bring it up for public discussion.
Since the beginning of 2022, more than 22,000 new recruits of the Armed Forces have received training in Great Britain. They acquired military skills, trench warfare techniques in the city, medical training, etc. Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden support the Interflex program and Marine training along with the UK.
As of mid-July, Great Britain has trained 18,000 Ukrainian volunteer infantrymen under the Op Interflex program.
Ukrainian ground forces and sailors are being trained in Great Britain. Training of volunteers lasts 120 days. It was planned that 10,000 soldiers would be trained every next 120 days.
Sweden, Finland, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand send their instructors to train Ukrainians in Britain. Australia also joined them.