The UK’s National Audit Office has recommended the Ministry of Defence “balance Ukraine’s needs and the UK’s strategic interests” after finding training and supplying the Ukrainian armed forces had reduced the capability of the British armed forces.
The British military has taught so many Ukrainian soldiers its own Army has struggled to get vital exercise time on its own training facilities, a government report has found. The National Audit Office (NAO), the UK-government funded autonomous value for money assessor also found the sheer volume of equipment donated to Ukraine from UK stocks will cost billions to replace and take years to source.
Looking at the way these two factors may limit the ability of the British Army to deliver its core mission, the NAO reflected: “The MoD has acknowledged that Interflex will constrain the British Army’s capability to train its own soldiers on its training sites… As the MoD considers its future support for Ukraine, it will need to continue to balance Ukraine’s needs and the UK’s strategic interests with the need to maintain the UK’s own military capabilities, through maintaining stocks of equipment and sufficient training provision for UK forces.”
Over 42,000 Ukrainian troops, covering everything from freshly recruited infantrymen to tank commanders, officers, and pilots, have been trained by the UK since the new phase of the Russian occupation of Ukraine began in 2022.
This has meant a considerable investment of time by British armed forces personnel and use of the defence estate for training. Indeed, the NAO found requests by the British Army to use UK training facilities were rejected at eight-times the normal rate in 2023, due to the areas being used to train Ukrainian troops instead.
But a longer-term concern may be equipment. The NAO report laid out in its key findings that there had been over 676 flights, and 3,000 road and rail deliveries taking military equipment to Ukraine from the United Kingdom. Replacing the equipment, which as stated includes “air defence missiles, drones, cruise missiles, tanks and ships, as well as clothing and personal equipment” taken from British stockpiles would cost £2.7 billion, and some wouldn’t be back on the shelves by 2030-31.
Just hours after the report was published, the UK government announced a fresh tranche of support for Ukraine worth £600 million.
The running down of ammunition stockpiles by the UK, but also other Western states donating for Kyiv’s defence, is judged a serious issue by some senior defence figures. As previously reported, the British government warned in 2023 that “stockpiles are looking a bit thin” and supplies of some key items have “run dry”.
The British Army’s General Sir Richard Barrons stated were the United Kingdom to be drawn into a hot war itself, it would exhaust its ammunition reserves in one day, saying the military had been hollowed out by decades of cuts. It would take so long to build up reserves — as illustrated today by the NAO stating it will take until the early 2030s to replace what is being sent to Ukraine now — that the British military presently needs “five to ten years” advanced notice before going to war against a near-peer adversary, the General said.
