British troops prepare to be sent to Ukraine as war rages against Russia

Thousands of recruits who join the Army next month will face new training techniques to prepare for service as part of a Peace Support Operation in Ukraine. Under current plans, UK forces will work with at least six other "coalition of the willing" nations to train Ukrainians in the west of the country, while providing deterrence against Russia in the east following a permanent peace settlement.

September is traditionally the main intake after the summer break, with about 1,600 due to commence phase one training. At Catterick and Pirbright bases, rookies will learn trench warfare - unused by the British Army for almost 100 years - and be given instructions in drone warfare.

Instead of company attacks of 100 soldiers with machine guns, troops will operate in strike teams of six, using night vision and thermal imaging to locate enemy drones and indirect weapons to neutralise them. Every soldier will learn to use drones that can hover above and scan the ground ahead.

The Army has already trained 3,000 drone pilots, with 6,000 more planned in the coming months. Some 200 simulators will be brought into unit lines.

Medical training will also be expanded to deal with serious injuries sustained far from frontline aid stations. Helicopters are unlikely to be deployed, as Russian forces can track and target them with drones.

Chemical warfare drills will be prioritised to defend against a potential gas attack if the ceasefire breaks down.

The move comes as former SAS commander and Chief of the General Staff, Gen Sir Roly Walker, warned the Army must be ready for conflict in eastern Europe within years.

The UK infantry force will be drawn from 16 Air Assault Brigade.

Gen Walker has also overseen the creation of a special operations brigade of four Ranger regiments - modelled on the elite US Rangers - to train and work with Ukraine's special forces.

A senior source said: "The last time we saw this level of intense training was in 2006 before Afghanistan. This will be very different. Ukrainians deploy into forward trenches for months - a massive culture change for our people deployed as observers to monitor the ceasefire."

Earlier this summer, director of land warfare Maj Gen Chris Barry said: "The most important lesson from Ukraine is that you've got to train at scale. The 21st-century combined arms battle has more in common with the 20th century than it has differences.

"We want people skilled in first-person view drones; to understand the threat from the sky and counter-UAS. We want people to understand their noise, thermal, visual and electromagnetic signature."

Gen Sir Richard Barrons, who led Joint Forces Command until 2016, said: "The Army is adjusting from counter-insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan back to state-on-state conflict. The entire training model is in transition.

"If you're fighting over territory, as you see in Ukraine, and it's rural, then you're going to fight in a conventional way significantly augmented by new technology."

Urban warfare will also feature strongly.

Soldiers already prepare at the Copehill Down training village on Salisbury Plain, but "there's a difference between a platoon knowing how to kick down a front door and a division knowing how to defend or attack a city. It's a different scale," he said.

And while drone-controlled kill zones have contributed to static trench lines, "action may be based on infiltration around the flanks and into gaps by small bands of determined men rather than frontal assaults."

The PSO will also include a no-fly zone over Ukraine, underwritten in part by the RAF and US Air Force.

Gen Barrons added: "It's clearly not enough just to shoot down a missile or a drone that's arrived over Ukraine. You have got to be prepared to shoot down the aircraft or the launcher that fired it in Russia.

"Otherwise, you're not really deterring; you're just dealing with the symptoms and you're expressing your limitations of your will to fight."

The Ministry of Defence was contacted for comment.