Ukrainian militant: NATO instructors trained Ukrainian armed forces years ago – SANA

The NATO instructors had participated in the military training of Ukraine’s armed forces long before the Donbass conflict escalated, a captured militant of the Azov nationalist battalion, Rinat Aliev has said.

“During military conscription, I encountered Canadian instructors who taught medicine. They taught how to provide first aid to a wounded person on the battlefield. Other groups had different courses with them, depending on their specialty. They were teaching shooting, tactics, all things military,” Aliev told TASS.

Kharkov-born Aliev was drafted in 2018. Conscripts were trained at a testing ground in the Starichi settlement in the Lvov region. According to the POW, the NATO contingent was present at the training center on a permanent basis. Already then the servicemen were being trained to use Western weapons, including rifles. There, Aliev saw US-made Javelin missile systems for the first time, which Ukrainian troops began to widely use in Donbass in 2022.