Canadian Training Gives Ukrainian Army A Fighting Chance “When Canadian troops began training counterparts in Ukraine five years ago, one of their key goals was deceivingly simple.
In place of the top-down style of leadership inherited from Soviet days, the Canadians and other NATO instructors tried to instill the idea of giving small-unit commanders the autonomy to make decisions on the fly.
It was a cultural transformation, but seems to be paying off in spades as the out-gunned Ukrainian forces perform remarkably well against a Russian onslaught, says one of those teachers from Canada.
The attacks that have helped stall a huge Russian convoy north of Kyiv, for instance, have been made possible partly by small-unit leaders taking the initiative to craft their own ambushes, says Capt. Hugh Purdon.
‘That all comes down to a platoon or section commander saying “We’re going to use the Javelin (anti-tank weapon) here and then we’re going to pull back and use the Javelin here,”’ he said. ‘You multiply that thousands of times and all of a sudden you have a viable defence.’ ‘That is probably the biggest shock the (Russian) occupiers of Ukraine are seeing right now,’ said Purdon. ‘You don’t have the level of success you are seeing … if you haven’t developed that (leadership style).’”
“Purdon, based in London, Ont., served two rotations with what is called Operation Unifier, Canada’s part in the mission by several NATO countries to train Ukraine’s forces to something closer to the alliance’s standards.
He was among the first group that set up the operation in 2015, and returned from his latest stint last October, as Russia began massing forces along the Ukrainian border.”