Defeat ‘not an option’ to Ukrainians trained by Windsor soldier

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Defiantly facing down invaders from a military superpower boasting one of the world’s largest armies, Ukraine’s battle for survival must surely appear to many outsiders as Mission: Impossible.

But a Windsor soldier just returned from an overseas mission to help train Ukrainian military conscripts said the message heard again and again from those being readied to join that fight was clear: “Defeat is not an option.”

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“For every Ukrainian I worked with, it wasn’t a matter of if they win — it was a question of when,” Cpl. Peter Dyck told the Windsor Star.

Dyck, a reservist with the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment, was stationed in England from last June until December, working with fellow soldiers from Canada, Lithuania and the United Kingdom at an undisclosed location as part of a broader international effort to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion.

The fighting, now along a 1,000-kilometre front line, has exacted a huge toll in lost lives and destroyed property. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Feb. 25 his country had lost 31,000 soldiers killed in action defending the country over the past two years.

But Ukraine hasn’t surrendered and has in fact stunned the world with its feisty resistance and endurance.

The original Russian plan in February 2022 was to use its overwhelming military superiority in the air and on land and sea for a lightning overthrow of neighbouring Ukraine’s democratically elected government and its armed forces.

“This is personal for them,” Dyck, 29, said of the green troops he instructed in basic infantry skills, including the combat use of firearms, rocket launchers and grenades.

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“Their history, culture, families … they’re very motivated to remain a sovereign nation. For them, it’s a statement of fact — ‘We will win this war.’”

At any given time, over 100 Canadian Armed Forces members are currently deployed in the United Kingdom and Poland as trainers within Security Assistance Group Ukraine (SAG-U), an international effort at assisting the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

SAG-U provides training on everything from basic infantry skills and combat first-aid to sapper (or combat engineer) training and junior officer leadership.

The program was launched after Russia’s full-scale military attack against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. But even before that, starting in September 2015 after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea the previous year, and until the eve of the 2022 invasion, Canadian soldiers — about 500 per year — were deployed in Ukraine proper, conducting training sessions there as part of Operation UNIFIER.

It was a life-changing experience

Separate from Op UNIFIER, and as part of a NATO ‘enhanced forward presence’ for deterrence, the Canadian Armed Forces are also part of Operation REASSURANCE (Task Force Latvia) — Canada’s largest overseas mission — with land, sea and air military assets totalling up to 2,200 troops in the tiny Baltic state bordering Russia.

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Windsor and Essex County military reservists have been part of both Op UNIFIER and Op REASSURANCE, said Major Hugh Purdon, operations major with 31 Canadian Brigade Group headquarters in London. Canadian reservists, he said, “are integral to the mission because they make up over a quarter of the troops being deployed.”

And as long as Ukraine continues its fight for survival, soldiers from Windsor and Essex County are likely to continue being part of the global effort to lend support in that fight.

“It was a life-changing experience — I met some incredible people,” Dyck said of his overseas deployment. While describing the work as “very taxing, … I’d go back again tomorrow.”

Although the Canadian instructors are advised not to become too close to those destined for the battlefield back home, Dyck said it was inevitable they would get to know their charges. His trainees, mostly “older” male conscripts in their 30s and 40s, included a police officer and farmers, builders, tradesmen, mechanics and university students.

“If you get to know these guys, you’re going to hear heart-breaking stories — that country is rife with tragedy,” he said.

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Keen to see both their country and themselves survive, the Ukrainian trainees were highly motivated, said Dyck. “This is real life-and-death.

“They’re under an immense amount of pressure to learn as much as possible,” and as quickly as possible. There was “an amplified level of seriousness … they knew if they learned well enough it could save lives.”

Batches of about 200 soldiers at a time would rotate in on 35-day training tours and be divided into platoons and sections. A smaller percentage of those he saw were female fighters, said Dyck.

And it wasn’t just green conscripts but battle-tested fighters. One of the courses taught was teaching leadership skills and standard military operating procedures to platoon commanders plucked from the trenches who could then apply lessons learned back on the front line.

For reasons of operational security, the Canadian Armed Forces won’t divulge exactly where in Europe the training is taking place, and some specialist training of small numbers of Ukrainian soldiers is being conducted in Canada. Canadian soldiers are also working with Ukrainian soldiers in Poland, while other NATO allies are training Ukrainian soldiers in the handling of state-of-the-art weapons systems, including artillery, tanks and even fighter jets.

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Dyck, who grew up in Cottam, lived the past four years in Windsor and recently bought a home in Leamington, is currently on contract with the Canadian Armed Forces, instructing a military training co-op course offered by local high schools.

Always “very community-oriented” and wanting to challenge himself more than what his then-construction work could offer, Dyck said he was already in his 20s when he joined The Essex and Kent Scottish.

“You can do some pretty incredible things,” he said of the opportunities serving in the reserves. While overseas, he said he regularly bumped into former Windsor and Essex comrades who had made the jump to the regular forces.

Dyck welcomes people asking him about the Canadian Armed Forces and about what Canada is doing now to support Ukraine.

“Everybody knows war is horrible, so why are we doing this? It really got driven home,” he said of his overseas mission.

dschmidt@postmedia.com

twitter.com/schmidtcity

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