Photo: Defence Connect
Australian Army instructors are acclimatising to snowy conditions as they teach Ukrainian recruits during Operation Kudu in the United Kingdom.
ADF personnel are training their second rotation of recruits from the Armed Forces of Ukraine in basic soldiering, according to an unnamed 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment platoon commander.
“With all of us being from Darwin, this isn’t exactly the climate we’re accustomed to soldiering in … and the environmental shift has meant performing demonstrations and giving lessons has proven challenging,” he said.
“The recruits and AFU instructors, who are accustomed to snowy conditions, and many of whom have seen combat, have been teaching us the best way to survive and to conceal our movement in snow.
“We’ve been using the lessons learned from the previous rotation, as well as the recent real-life experience of the Ukrainian section commanders, to further refine and improve the training.”
Winter warfare training has been a popular pastime recently among several countries.
The US and Canada have both teamed up earlier this month to tactically insert a platoon of troops by Hercules aircraft and train on Arctic Ocean ice during Exercise Guerrier Nordique 23.
Both the US and China also sent troops to compete in the snowy Edelweiss Raid 2023 international mountain infantry competition hosted by Austrian Armed Forces during February this year.