Ukraine trainers will help Germany’s army get ready to defend against Russia by 2029, chief says
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A Ukrainian drone operator testing a drone in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in 2024.
PHOTO: NICOLETUNG/NYTIMES
- Ukrainian trainers will assist the German military to prepare for a potential Russian attack on NATO by 2029, sharing their combat experience.
- Germany is the first to arrange this with Ukraine, expecting a "middle double-digits" contingent to teach artillery, drones, and engineering.
- Lt-Gen Freuding stated that Ukraine developed data-centric warfare skills in combat that are invaluable. "We have no time...we have to use every possibility to prepare".
AI generated
BERLIN - 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 in February 2026 that Ukraine would send military instructors to German army schools to teach lessons they have learnt from fighting against Russia’s invasion.
“We have high expectations,” said Lieutenant-General Christian Freuding, the head of the German army, in a Reuters interview.
“The Ukrainian military is currently the only one in the world with front-line experience against Russia.”
Germany is not the only Western country drawing on Kyiv’s experience: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 5 pledged to provide assistance to the US in dealing with Iranian drones in the Middle East.
Lt-Gen 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.
“That’s almost the day after tomorrow. We have no time – the enemy doesn’t wait for us to declare we’re ready. So we have to use every possibility to prepare,” Lt-Gen Freuding said.
Russia has insisted it does not intend to attack NATO, but Western officials say such assurances cannot be taken at face value as Moscow made similar statements before invading Ukraine. Lt-Gen Freuding, who became army chief in October 2025 after previously coordinating Germany’s arms supplies to Kyiv, said the initial contingent of Ukrainian trainers would likely number in the “middle double-digits” and stay for a few weeks at a time.
Expertise in artillery, drones and engineering
The Ukrainian instructors are expected to contribute expertise in artillery, engineering, armoured operations, drone usage and command and control.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Germany has trained Ukrainian forces on weapons such as Marder infantry fighting vehicles, Leopard tanks, howitzers and air defence systems.
A 2022 photo shows Lieutenant-General Christian Freuding (left) at a military ceremony in Munster, Germany, with then German defence minister Christine Lambrecht.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Lt-Gen Freuding said Ukraine had built on these skills in combat, developing tactics and capabilities in data-centric warfare – the military term for highly digitalised and interconnected operations – that cannot be found in textbooks.
“The fact that they are now coming to us as instructors reflects a security partnership on an equal footing,” Lt-Gen Freuding said. REUTERS
