Germany’s army trained Ukrainian troops on Leopard 1 battle tanks Thursday in the eastern German town of Klietz, just outside Berlin, APA reports citing CNN.
The Ukrainian army needs to train more soldiers after many have either been wounded or killed during the fight against Russia’s invasion, German Lt. Gen. Andreas Marlow told reporters at the training site.
“I think the most important concern for Ukraine is the training of officers, because it’s obvious that the professional soldiers have been at war for a year and a half now,” Marlow said. “Many have been killed or wounded, and now they need supplies, including leaders and sub-leaders. And there is quite a demand for that.”
The Ukrainian soldiers are “highly motivated,” said Marco Maulbecker, a German armed forces commander and trainer.
“They have to be. After all, if you want to learn the basic skills of the main battle tank, the instruction manual is a good 700 pages long. And you can see the motivation above all in the fact that they also deal with the system after duty and are really willing to learn the system in a really short time.”
Ukrainian soldiers also spoke to journalists at the training site.
“The training is very important for us because we receive (new) tanks with technical (systems), and the soldiers have to learn to use this equipment,” one service member said. “Therefore, it is very important for us, so that our soldiers can use it efficiently during battles.”
“We are very motivated to fight for our home country and that’s the best remedy against fear,” the soldier added.
