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14 Apr 2025 21:03
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  •   Home > News > International

    Ukrainian troops warn a ceasefire 'won't work with the Russians'

    Ukrainian soldiers and medics who have been on the front line during Russia's full-scale invasion over the past three years have come to the United Kingdom for six weeks to boost their battlefield medicine skills, and they have a message about ceasefire negotiations underway.


    On a property in the north of England, a mass casualty event is unfolding.

    There are head injuries, bullet wounds and blast injuries. Patients are crying out in pain and covered in blood.

    Casualty after casualty is being brought to a makeshift triage centre, where medics are working furiously to save lives.

    It would be a confronting scene to witness if it were real, but on this day at least, it is all part of a military training exercise.

    Ukrainian soldiers and medics who have been on the front line during Russia's full-scale invasion over the past three years have come to the United Kingdom for six weeks to boost their battlefield medicine skills.

    The trainees are learning a range of skills from giving antibiotics and fluids to tying tourniquets and drilling into bone, knowing that it probably won't be too long before they have to call on their new-found knowledge.

    Speaking through an interpreter, Ukrainian medic Anna* tells the ABC her job since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 has been to help evacuate injured Ukrainian troops from the front line.

    "My responsibility is to save the soldier and deliver him alive to the hospital," she says.

    Anna has come to the training course to learn as much as she can to help her fellow Ukrainians.

    "This job makes your adrenaline jump but you must forget about your own emotions," she says.

    "The most important thing is to save lives, so you have to do everything you can to save them."

    The 24-year-old has seen the horrors of war firsthand.

    "My job as a medic is to be brave," she says.

    "Sometimes when I feel weak and [the war] makes me sad, I allow myself 10 minutes to be soft and weak, but then I think 'there is nobody to replace me and I still have to do my job', so I pull myself together and I do what I have to do."

    Chief Instructor Lieutenant Colonel Janet Kelly says the training is designed to give participants "real-life scenarios" to work through.

    "Ultimately, it's all about saving lives and giving the surgeon a live casualty with the best chance of surviving," she says.

    "But also, they can actually share their skills with other Ukrainians, it can be passed on … so it's definitely having a positive impact."

    Training continues as peace talks flounder

    Britain's Ministry of Defence (MOD) says it has trained more than 52,000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in basic battlefield first aid techniques, and more than 450 have also learned combat medic skills, since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

    Some are building on existing medical knowledge, while others have had no lessons other than what they have managed to pick up from the front line.

    As diplomats from Washington try to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Kyiv and Moscow, training programs like this are continuing at Ukraine's request.

    Ukrainian trainee Jimmy*, who has been playing the role of a patient with a nasty head wound in the scenario witnessed by the ABC, thinks the ceasefire negotiations have been "bullshit".

    "It won't work with the Russians, they will not stand for a ceasefire, they will not follow anything, they will do only what they want," the 38-year-old says.

    "They'll use a ceasefire only for preparation for the next attack."

    Jimmy joined the Ukrainian military when he was 18 years old and has been fighting on the front line since Russia launched its attacks.

    "It's dangerous, [you] can be killed anytime," he says.

    "It's like playing Russian Roulette, it's relentless, everything depends on luck."

    Rather than diplomacy and deals, Jimmy believes the war will be won on the battlefield.

    And he says more help from allies is needed.

    "More supplies, more air defences, more missiles, more weapons — it's the only way to win the war," he says.

    'I'd go to Ukraine tomorrow'

    As well as ceasefire talks, meetings are being held every week between members of the so-called "coalition of the willing", which is being led by the UK and France.

    The coalition includes around 30 of Ukraine's allies, including Australia.

    Its aim is to work out practical ways to ensure Ukraine's long-term security if a ceasefire with Moscow is reached.

    Both the UK and France have said they would be prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine as part of providing future security assurances for Kyiv.

    So far, other countries have been reluctant to commit to that, especially with the Kremlin declaring that NATO troops inside Ukraine would be crossing a "red line".

    UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron say they are aiming to put together a "reassurance force" to cement any ceasefire and encourage long-term peace, but they add that such a force would not be deployed anywhere near the front line.

    At the battlefield medicine course for Ukrainians, British paramedic and trainer Lance Corporal Liam Webb tells the ABC he would "go to Ukraine tomorrow".

    "Obviously, there's talk about British troops going, and I'd be happy to go and support my colleagues and our partner nations in [Ukraine's] fight," he says.

    "I definitely want to go help in a peacekeeping role, if that was an option."

    Platoon combat medic and course director Major Finlay Langlands says he is proud of the work he is doing to help the Ukrainians in the UK and would also deploy to their country.

    "If I could help support a lasting peace in Ukraine, I absolutely would, if that was what was asked of me," he says.

    In the meantime, these medics will keep training the Ukrainians on British soil.

    Lieutenant Colonel Janet Kelly says that as the latest cohort of trainees to be taught by her team leaves to return to Ukraine, she knows they will go home "to save lives".

    "I have a little Ukrainian saying that I say to them, I toast them farewell, I toast that we hopefully will meet you again in peaceful times … and we salute them as they leave on the bus," she says.

    "We respect them as fellow soldiers, they consider themselves warriors, and we respect that notion as well."

    *Names changed for security reasons.


    ABC




    © 2025 ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved

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