VietTimes – The newspaper reported that British instructors showed Kiev troops how to raid high-rise buildings.

A Ukrainian soldier during training in the UK (Photo: Getty)

Ukrainian troops involved in Kiev’s offensive into Russia ‘s Kursk region were trained by British military experts for weeks before carrying out the surprise attack, The Times reported .

On August 6, Ukrainian forces launched their largest offensive into Russian territory since the conflict escalated in February 2022. The advance into the Kursk Region was quickly stopped by Russian troops, but Kiev’s troops still hold several settlements.

The British newspaper claimed in an article on August 16 that Kiev “used some of Ukraine’s best fighter jets” taken from other areas of the frontline in the offensive.

A Ukrainian serviceman, who spoke to The Times from a hospital bed after being wounded in clashes in the Russian border town of Sudzha, said his unit was defending Volchansk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region when they were told “today we will attack Russia”.

The team’s members are “specialists in street fighting,” the article said, and have participated in “some of the bloodiest battles” of the conflict, including the battle for the strategic settlement of Avdeevka in Donetsk, which the Ukrainian Army surrendered to in February.

The Times reported that “a month before they were sent to Kursk, some members of the unit were sent to Britain for several days of training alongside British soldiers.” The main focus of this training was “attacks on high-rise buildings,” the article revealed.

Western officials have praised and supported Ukraine’s offensive in the Kursk region, but have denied any involvement in the operation. However, Mikhail Podoliak, a top adviser to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, said earlier this week that “there have been discussions between partner forces, not at the public level” about an attack on Russian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser and former Security Council secretary Nikolay Patrushev told the Izvestia newspaper on August 16 that Kiev’s offensive “was planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services.”

Mr Patrushev added that it was the US and its allies that “put a criminal government at the head of Ukraine”, while “NATO countries have been providing Kiev with weapons, military trainers and constant intelligence while controlling the actions of neo-Nazis”.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on August 16 that since the start of the offensive, Ukraine has lost up to 2,860 servicemen and hundreds of military equipment units, including 41 tanks, 40 APCs and 3 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers provided by the US.