New training on NATO soil for Ukrainian soldiers that teaches them the best Western practices fight against the Russian invasion was deliberately set up on the threshold of war.
The training camp’s location allows Ukrainian soldiers to get started training quickly, while a steady stream of Ukrainian commanders, instructors and recurring feedback from the front lines ensures the curriculum remains current.
Operation Legio is led by Norway, together with several other involved allies, in the purpose-built camp in Jomsborg Eastern Polandabout a two-hour drive from the Ukrainian border.
Other allies have done so provided training to Ukrainian troops in more distant locations, such as the UK-led Operation Interflex. Legio is closer to the fighting.
Major John, the S3 Operations Officer responsible for synchronizing the overall training operation, told Business Insider at the camp that “we are actually closer to the eastern front in eastern Poland than we are to our own capital in Norway.”
Brigadier General Atle Molde, the commander of Task Force Legio, told Business Insider that the location was intentional. “Very early in this process we decided that our approach should be to provide high-quality training, flexible and adaptable to the changing situation on the front and as close to Ukraine as possible.”
Both officials said the location makes it easier for Ukrainian troops to reach the camp for training, saving valuable time, while also strengthening the feedback loop between instructors and the battlefield for more realistic training.
NATO has said that “Jomsborg camp, due to its proximity to the Ukrainian border, is an ideal place for Ukrainian forces to hone their skills.”
More time for training
Molde said the decision was practical and aimed at providing Ukrainian forces with as much training as possible. A location further away would entail sending soldiers and equipment in planes across Europe, something that is “much more expensive, takes more time, requires more time without training.”
The proximity to Ukraine’s battlefields means soldiers can maximize training time before returning. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images
For soldiers leaving the battlefield to receive training before returning to battle, eastern Poland is “just a bus ride away.”
Operation Legio training could ultimately be “a matter of life and death,” Molde said, so “to preserve the hours and days for training that we have, it is practical to do it there.”
“Every minute, every hour we have them for training” is important, he said, explaining that he and his colleagues know that every time the buses leave, some of the soldiers on them “will, in the worst case scenario, be dead.”
Safe from attacks
Although the training camp is close to the border with Ukraine, where war has been raging for years as a result of Russian aggression, it is safely on NATO soil. Soldiers can train without the threat of attack. The same is not the case at home.
In Ukraine, training camps are often targeted. Drone schools previously told Business Insider that they did keep their locations secret and exercise regularly. Some take polygraph security interviews to avoid risks that could make them a target of a Russian attack.
Faced with these types of threats, John said, “they can’t maximize training time.” But in Poland, without attacks, “we can maximize the 51 days we have available for each training.”
Ukrainian training camps are “seriously threatened from above, both from ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones and everything,” Molde said.
Ukrainian soldiers training in Ukraine should worry about the threat of attack and take protective measures that could shorten the actual training time. ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images
There “you have to be spread out, you have to be underground.” At Camp Jomsborg, “we can use every minute to provide high-quality training for the trainees without having to worry about anything falling on our heads.”
The feedback loop
Part of ensuring quality training is realism. The training tries to replicate entering the battlefield as much as possible, simulating the terrain and trenches, and using the type of weapons that Ukrainian and Russian forces use. But the battles evolve quickly, so staying accurate means you get constant feedback.
“We are not that far from Ukraine and that close relationship is very important,” John told Business Insider during a visit to Camp Jomsborg. The proximity to the border has helped establish “a very direct dialogue with our Ukrainian partners who are here in Jomsborg.”
It’s the key to a “rapid feedback loop,” he said.
John said that information about the terrain, Russia’s actions and Ukrainian tactics “must be continuously fed into the training mission. And that is a very important success criterion for this mission. That requires “a close connection between the reality on the front line and what we do in this training center.”
The camp’s trench network, for example, has “changed a few times and we’ve only been active for less than a year,” Molde said.
Jørgen, a Norwegian army instructor for the operation’s platoon leader course, told Business Insider that “we are making a lot of changes, and we are trying to evaluate this day by day, and we are bringing the flexibility to be able to change tomorrow or tonight.”
Much of that feedback comes directly from Ukrainians cycling through the camp. With each new rotation, new commanders and instructors come in, John said, “and they give us feedback on what’s working in the training and what’s not working in the training.”
There is also an ongoing dialogue with graduates moving on to frontline positions. They send back information about new developments on the battlefield.
“A very, very close dialogue is very important,” John said.
Being in Poland also helps with realism, because “in Poland we get to do things that are more complicated in other parts of Europe,” Molde said, such as operate drones and electronic warfare systems. It is something that Western Europe has more restrictions on. Integrating what is there ubiquitous on the battlefield in training is critical to ensuring that the training is effective.
