Business Insider: Ukrainians Have Deprived Western Militaries Of A Mass Of Illusions
- 7.12.2025, 10:23
The Europeans learned tactics on the training grounds that make no sense in real warfare.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been trained at training grounds in European countries, most of all in the UK. However, much of what they were taught there cannot be applied in real warfare, writes Business Insider.
Mayor Maguire, a British military instructor interviewed by reporters, admitted that the trenches in Ukraine are too muddy and uneven to be able to implement the classic "safe tactics" of taking the trenches, which British infantry has practiced on training grounds for decades.
"We probably thought the trenches should be quite clean and sort of surgical," he said.
Maguire said the training trenches dug on a training ground in Britain were made to "British building standards, with timber cladding and a gravel bottom for drainage." But there are hardly any such trenches on the frontline in Ukraine.
He said that some Ukrainians who trained in Britain already had combat experience. And here they were making trenches quite different from what the Western military was used to seeing. For example, the Ukrainians did not spend time and effort on removing tree roots that were sticking out of the trench walls, and did not try to make the trenches neat at all.
The Ukrainians made it clear to their Western colleagues that digging trenches under constant artillery fire and drone strikes is already dangerous in itself. It makes no sense to spend time and effort to build the perfect trench where even just dragging the body of a dead man away from the entrance to the dugout already poses considerable danger.
According to Maguire, the British "safe tactics" of mopping up trenches are actually quite slow and not suitable for a war like the one in Ukraine. "The Ukrainian mentality is quite different. They have to go through these places very quickly," the officer said.
In addition, Ukrainians have to deal with numerous traps and mines when clearing Russian trenches, including booby-trapped bodies of the Russians themselves - not only the dead, but also those who surrender.
He said that looking at the war in Ukraine, Western militaries had to say goodbye to some common illusions. For example, it became obvious that the "golden hour" standard, during which a wounded person must be taken to a hospital, can in no way be realized in a war of such scale and intensity as the one in Ukraine.