How Britain is training Ukraine's soldiers | LBC

*In a secret UK training camp, Ukrainian soldiers prepare for the frontline. LBC’s Joseph Draper reports.*

It’s a cold, wet day - the landscape flat, sparse, interrupted only by the freshly dug trenches where Ukrainian soldiers crawl to avoid ‘enemy’ fire.

I feel the thud of artillery in my bones, hear the snap of gunshots and the death-buzz of remote-controlled drones overhead. It almost convinces me we’re in the open fields of the Donbas - except there, the wind is far colder, and the bombs are real.

In just a few days, the troops being trained by the British Army at this secret location in eastern England will find themselves on the front line of the bloodiest European conflict since the Second World War. The lessons they learn here - forest warfare, trench fighting, hiding from drones -could well save their lives.

Back at camp, around a hundred troops who’ve finished their training say their final farewell to the sound of bagpipes from the Irish Guards. It’s a poignant moment as they board buses bound for Ukraine. All these men - each with parents, children, lovers - equal just one day’s casualties in this incredibly bloody war.

The reality of what they’re about to face may be terrifying, but the men I speak to are clear-eyed about their mission. One soldier, whose identity we’re protecting, says he’s determined to liberate the Russian-held territory where his mother lives.

“I don’t believe. I know we’re going to get that land back,” he says.

And that, ultimately, is what they’re fighting for.

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