Looking a man in the eye who is about to go to war might be unsettling.
Ivan* worked as a builder in Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion, which drastically altered his life.
He recalled fondly a period when his sweetheart used to shake him to wake him up in the mornings rather than shaking his house with missiles.
Now with just a couple months of basic training, he’s preparing to put his life on the line for his country, and hoping not to die.
Lawyers, educators, and a dance choreographer are also learning how to operate tanks, dig trenches, and shoot targets alongside Ivan.
Knowing to survive on the battlefield is just as important as learning how to fight.
They pick up packing, eating, and sleeping techniques.
Armed troops from the UK and New Zealand have trained more than 5700 regular Ukrainian citizens so far, and hundreds more will soon complete the programme.
Ivan is finishing up his last lesson when I first meet him. He doesn’t know where the army will use him when he gets back to Ukraine.
But he claims to be unafraid. He says boldly, “No way.” He is at his most animated during the entire talk at this point.
He says he’s received both tactical training as well as psychological training and he’s ready.
Ivan claims that his motivation comes from his ability to observe what is occurring at home and from his thoughts of “relatives, friends, and acquaintances [whose] house has been destroyed and they won’t have a place to go back to.”
Additionally, he might “never see them again”
Trainers from the UK and New Zealand tell me they are astounded by how rapidly Ukrainians have picked things up, knowing full well that the stakes are enormous.
It’s not his true name.
1News encounters Ukrainians being taught by the UK and NZ to fight
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