Zaragoza (EFE).- Fifty-five Ukrainian soldiers have completed their training in handling Leopard 2 A4 tanks at the San Gregrorio de Zaragoza maneuver field, a training period marked by their motivation and desire to return to the front to be able to contribute to the defense of his country.
There are 40 soldiers who have learned to crew the tanks (ten crews of four members with a tank leader, driver, loader and shooter) and 15 technical specialists (five mechanics, five electronics and five weapons specialists) who have spent four weeks in the Zaragoza maneuvering ground, with intense work shifts, from eight to eight except Saturday afternoons.
Captain Contreras, head of the Training Module for Ukrainian personnel from the 10th Alcántara Cavalry Regiment in Melilla, explained this Monday to the media that all the people who have participated in the training, all men, are soldiers, some of them in the reserve, between 21 and 60 years old, but with experience in the front line of combat.
They already had experience in mechanized armored media
Although at first the team in charge of training these soldiers in Zaragoza did not know what skills they had, they soon discovered that all of them had experience in mechanized armored vehicles, which has made things “much” easier and has helped them acquire the training and that they now travel to Ukraine “with a very acceptable knowledge” of the Leopard 2 A4.
The main difference with the cars that the Ukrainian troops drive is that in the Leopard 2 A4 a loader crew member joins, while in those of the Ukrainian army it is automatic.
The instruction has been eminently practical, both in simulators and in the field of maneuvers with these cars, ten in total, six of them from Zaragoza and another four from Toledo.
This Monday they are participating in a tactical exercise in the San Gregorio maneuver field that will last until around one o’clock in the morning, in which they will carry out different actions to attack fictitious positions, in which the Enemy Unit of Zaragoza also intervenes, fundamental to realistically simulate the exercises.
Very good spirits and willing to learn
According to Captain Contreras, the soldiers are in “surprisingly good” spirits and despite having been directly involved in the conflict, they are very motivated and eager to learn and “very eager to once again contribute to the defense of their country,” while Their Spanish instructors are “proud” of having been able to contribute to this mission and help them make things work out “as well as possible within the conflict.”
The soldiers, who arrived in Zaragoza on February 13, are scheduled to leave this Wednesday, March 15, for Poland.
Once there, aware that the Leopard car is “certainly superior” to the ones they have, with a range of about 4 kilometers and thermal cameras, for which they have been “very happy and satisfied”, they will wait to be called to the field of operations, said the captain, who has affirmed that the perception they have of the war is that “it is going well, but it could go better”.
The Leopard management and maintenance courses were launched after the Spanish commitment was formalized to contribute to the Ukrainian defensive effort with the contribution of several of these tanks and some one hundred people have participated in them – the 55 Ukrainian soldiers plus thirty of members of the 10th Alcántara Cavalry Regiment of Melilla and interpreters.
Now, the Ukrainian personnel are already capable of managing the operating systems of the combat vehicle and carrying out maintenance tasks on the different mechanical and electronic components.