As the war shifts, Ukrainian soldiers in the U.K. learn offensive tactics from Canada

With the rat-a-tat-tat of machine-gun fire and the putrid smell of explosives in the air, a squad of Ukrainian troops dashes to the cover of a foxhole lined with sandbags.

Some in the group return fire, with their rounds striking next to a concrete structure on a hillside hundreds of metres away.

It's a convincing simulation, meant to imitate the chaos and intensity of real battlefield conditions — only this scene is playing out in the picturesque rolling hills of southern England, rather than in the conflict zones of Ukraine's Donbas or Kherson regions.

"I'm ready to take up arms and go to the front and fight against the invaders," said a 20-something Ukrainian recruit taking part in the simulation, who asked to be called by his nickname, Panda.

He and about 200 other Ukrainians have just completed the final part of an intensive five-week training course that's been conducted under the auspices of the British Ministry of Defence.

The media event at the training base was carefully staged by British defence staff, with the Ukrainian soldiers hand-picked for interviews and the media given a very tight time frame to conduct them. CBC News agreed, under British operating rules, to hide the identities and faces of the Ukrainians.

Panda said until just a few weeks ago he was a design engineer working in the western part of Ukraine — and he had never fired a gun. But, very quickly, he's had to assimilate himself into a military mindset.

"I really want this war to end as soon as possible, and with the support of our allies, we can get this to happen," he told a CBC News crew through a translator during a short interview at the British training area.

Earlier this week, Britain's Ministry of Defence invited foreign journalists, including from Canada, to observe the training program for Ukrainian recruits, which it calls Operation Interflex.

The goal is to eventually give up to 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers a NATO-quality immersion in the basics of military combat, tactics and battlefield casualty response.

Canada is one of several Western partners taking part in the program, with approximately 160 military personnel stationed in England.

New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Latvia and Denmark are among the other countries participating in the British-led program.

For Canada's military, it is the second-generation version of what began in 2015 as Operation Unifier, which was based out of the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security near Lviv, Ukraine.

Over seven years, thousands of Ukrainian recruits were either trained or had their skills upgraded by Canadian soldiers before Russia's Feb. 24 invasion led to the program's abrupt closure.