Non-Ukrainians oversaw a training mission for Ukrainian marines returning home. US veterans are paying for their own flights to help prepare civilians for the next phase of the war with Russia.

In a WSJ feature, a group of Ukrainian marine recruits was seen wearing mismatched fatigues, who laid on the grass, cocking their assault rifles and aiming at targets. As the US instructors arrived, they were surprised to see, one by one, the Ukrainians started squeezing the trigger.

“Cease fire!” yelled Steven Tomberlin, 62, a retired police officer from Colorado overseeing this part of the training. “Until I give the command. You. Do. Not. Do. Anything.”

Bullets frequently missed their mark when firing resumed, hitting the dirt berm rather than their targets.

Sr. Lt. Anton Solohub, a deputy commander of this Ukrainian Marine battalion, described the first day of a crash course provided by American veterans as he observed the lesson. Solohub noted that many of the enrollees had never held a weapon before. He was an electrician or a tractor driver prior to being mobilized.

“These instructors have guaranteed to produce a unique force of men in 10 days,” Sr. Lt. Solohub chuckled. “Let’s see if they can do it.”

Kyiv’s most significant challenge today is training these civilians for brutal combat against a better-armed and larger opponent, especially as it attempts to regain occupied territory.

Ukraine’s military is suffering from a severe shortage of qualified instructors because combat troops are required on the front lines. Because British, American, and Canadian active-duty soldiers were removed in February, no training missions can be conducted on British soil.
Volunteers like Tomberlin, who used to train Afghan commandos, are how it comes in.

Thousands of Westerners rushed to Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky said in the early days of the war that the country was seeking fighters to defend its independence. The International Legion, which has been significantly decimated in combat, was formed as a result. Unfortunately, several of these fighters have been captured, and even more, have been killed by Russia.

Senior Ukrainian commanders concurred with Tomberlin that more experienced volunteers would be more effective at conveying their knowledge to Ukrainian recruits than sitting in a trench.

“Here, there is such a hunger for what we are offering. These guys will be better prepared than 75% of the Ukrainian army,” Tomberlin said, referring to the 240 Ukrainian troops he has already trained.

Around a dozen Americans, a few Britons, Canadians, and Israelis, supported by Ukrainian interpreters and support personnel, make up the Mobile Assault Training Group, or MATG.

Members of the group flew to Ukraine on their own money, driven by televised images of devastation, and united through informal connections in Mykolaiv. Because Mykolaiv is still a hotbed location of Russian attacks, subject to daily shelling and rocket barrages, it remains besieged.

The US government doesn’t penalize Americans for helping the Ukrainian military, even though it urges all Americans to leave the country.

Recruits needed help achieving their goals in the beginning. An MATG commander, Bradley Crawford, who retired from the US Army infantry as a first sergeant, says he was mentioned in the mobile phone of a Russian hit-squad member recently captured in Mykolaiv. A Russian missile struck near his house last month, resulting in some burns and other minor injuries.

“The Russians, they sure don’t like us being here,” said 39-year-old Iraq war veteran Scott Crawford from Ohio, who has been in Ukraine since April.

The nature of the war has turned his Ukrainian students into quick learners, he says.

“They have no choice and time is not on their side,” Crawford says. “We had dangers in Afghanistan and Iraq, but we are sending these men to full kinetic warfare rather than some kind of counterinsurgency.”

When the war began, the 36th Marine Brigade was deployed in the Azov Sea city of Mariupol and quickly besieged. According to Kyiv officials, it has essentially been wiped out, with around 1,000 Marines killed, wounded, or captured. It’s made up “of several hundred troops and the rest of the 36th brigade,” and they were training for a new mission: recapturing the city of Kherson.

Many Marines in Capt. Oleksandr Buntov’s new battalion are from Kherson. Although the captain was able to smuggle out his family, some Marines still have family members, spouses, or children living under occupation.

Captain Buntov said his motivation is unwavering: to liberate his homeland. He acknowledged that the mission would be arduous, which is why he and his men are preparing. Urban close-quarters fighting is the most difficult form of combat, no matter how long you train, and the offense is much more complex than defense.

The battalion’s other battle-hardened officers, besides Capt. Buntov, are mostly inexperienced military officers. Recently, former US Army Capt. Jim Lee taught some of the unit’s lieutenants how to plan an urban mission in Kherson using maps and assault plans.

Before Kyiv begins a possible southern offensive, Ukrainian troops must learn urban warfare.

Lee, who has a master’s degree and is studying in Poland, is getting down to business. He became involved in helping Ukrainian refugees when the conflict began as a result of his studies.

Ukrainian soldiers like Lt. Vitaly, who is a 42-year-old prosecutor and an ROTC graduate, are not permitted to disclose their full names. He completed a 40-day Ukrainian officer training course after the conflict began.

“Everything is new to me,” he said as he took a break from Mr. Lee’s instruction to smoke a cigarette.”The Russian plan is to push ahead without care for casualties. In our army, the main value is the life and health of a soldier. That is why we need to learn how to outsmart the enemy.”

Because the main purpose of our military is the welfare of our soldiers, we must learn how to outsmart the enemy. That is why we must learn how to outsmart the enemy.

American infantry tactics are being taught to Ukrainian troops as part of the training in order to surprise and perplex Russian forces, who are expecting the Ukrainians to employ the same Soviet tactics as they do, American instructors say.

A typical course near Mykolaiv has foreign instructors instructing two platoons of 32 fighters, who battle against each other in the last activity. Because he was an accountant in the Donbas, Lieutenant Maksym, 38, who was an accountant until June, is now leading the first platoon. He is obviously not a military man, and he is really far from it, so it has come to this. He is trying to absorb the trainers’ directions as he frowns.

Lt. Ihor, 32, an Odessa merchant marine engineer with a shaved head, seemed more at ease in his new position. “It’s not that different from being on the ship. It’s hot, the quarters are cramped, you work nonstop, and you don’t have any time to relax,” he said, chuckling. Neither man had experienced combat.

The Marines in the two platoons had learned how to handle their weapons and administer first aid by day four of the training. Now they were learning more complicated skills. On day five, Lt. Maksym’s men picked up branches and leaves from fields near the base, making impressive wreaths of flowers, and hid in the bushes to ambush their instructors. When the Ukrainian Marines shouted “pam, pam, pam” to imitate gunfire, Brian Bentley, a 29-year-old former Israeli paratrooper, and American-born trainer, fell to the ground as a result. After the men turned him over and searched his body for documents and weapons, he winced as he was turned over again.

When the Marines returned from the patrol, a new lieutenant’s strict discipline caused dissension. Mitya, a veteran Marine who wore a Soviet-style blue-and-white striped shirt and refused to wear a helmet, came up to Crawford to complain about being bossed around. Mitya’s comrades had been killed in combat on the Mykolaiv front in the last five months, and he had been transferred to the battalion after quarreling with his prior commander.

“All these people giving me orders, where have they been all this time?” he asked. Crawford listened attentively.

The last man on the team used his rifle to protect the rear as the Marines rushed up the staircase to select a path of approach. Afterward, the lieutenant was pleased. “These men have never held weapons in their hands, and now they’ve learned how to clear buildings,” he said.

The battalion commander, Capt. Buntov, also approved.

“Blood will be spared later through sweat now,” he said.

Recruits mastered the basics of shooting and first aid before taking on the more challenging task of clearing a structure.