Ukrainian trainers will help German army get ready to defend against Russia by 2029, chief says

BERLIN, March 11 - Ukrainian military trainers will help Germany's military meet a target of being ready to defend against any Russian attack on NATO by 2029, the German army chief said, in a role reversal after years of Western troops training Ukrainian forces. Read more at straitstimes.com.

BERLIN, March 11 - Ukrainian military trainers will help Germany's military meet a target of being ready to defend against any Russian attack on NATO by 2029, the German army chief said, in a role reversal after years of Western troops training Ukrainian forces.

Berlin and Kyiv agreed last month that Ukraine would send military instructors to German army schools to teach lessons they have learned from fighting against Russia's invasion.

"We have high expectations," Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, the head of the German army, told Reuters in an interview. "The Ukrainian military is currently the only one in the world with frontline experience against Russia."

Germany is not the only Western country drawing on Kyiv's experience: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday pledged to provide assistance to the U.S. in dealing with Iranian drones in the Middle East.

Freuding said Germany was the first country to reach an arrangement with Ukraine to provide military instructors but predicted others would follow suit.

Asked what the Ukrainian trainers would contribute, he referred to assessments by German and other Western intelligence agencies that Russia could be ready for a large-scale attack on the NATO military alliance by 2029.