British medics sent to Ukraine to help prepare UK for WW3
EXCLUSIVE: British Army medics, deployed to Ukraine to train and mentor their counterparts, are bringing important lessons back to the UK to prepare UK troops.
British Army medics have deployed to Ukraine to mentor and train their Ukrainian counterparts. The small contingent of medical personnel that includes surgeons, nurses and physiotherapists, are aiding Ukrainians in developing their ability to provide life-saving care and rehabilitation.
Skills developed in Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly in regards to battlefield trauma are understood to be of particular interest to Ukrainian medics likely to deploy to a frontline haunted by drones armed with explosives. A western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the presence of the British soldiers and confirmed that the group are learning lessons to bring back to the UK. Unlike wars the UK have engaged in this century which have seen them dominate the air, enabling them to evacuate casualties with relevant ease, the contested nature of Ukrainian battlespace robs Zelensky’s forces of that luxury.
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The Western official confirmed to the Daily Express that lessons were being learned about how to most effectively deliver care to the seriously wounded close to the frontlines amid protracted evacuation timelines.
They said: “We are learning hundreds of lessons from Ukraine that can be brought back to the UK and used to train and prepare our forces for similar environments.
“Firstly how they are dealing with the movement of mass casualties, utilising manned vehicles such as trains and unmanned vehicles too.
“We are learning how to better deliver medical care closer to the frontline, using improved battlefield first aid, antibiotics and dressings.
“And we are also learning from their excellent track record of getting back into the fight and returning soldiers back to service.”
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British doctrine currently mandates that military medical planners should abide by the 10-1-2 principle when planning for the treatment of casualties.
The principle dictates that life-saving care should be given within 10 minutes to stop a patient from dying in the immediate aftermath of an injury such as by bleeding out or choking.
It then requires planners to do all they can to ensure that the casualty is delivered to a medical facility equipped with a doctor within an hour of sustaining an injury and moved to a higher level facility, known as a Role 2, within two hours.
Whilst such timeframes were achievable in recent counter-insurgency campaigns against forces with no air power, they become unlikely in war against a peer nation state.
One British Army medical officer with experience planning for the delivery of prolonged fieldcare told the Daily Express that skills learned during World War 2 have been lost in the modern age.
They said: “We knew how to keep people alive for hours until they could be evacuated in the Second World War but we have not needed to in recent decades so lots of these skills have been lost.
“What we are relearning from Ukraine is that if you front load capability then you can give injured soldiers a better chance of survival and keep them alive until you can get them back to a field hospital.”
