Facing a house from which assault rifle fire was echoing, a young man in work clothes hissed through his teeth: “Damn, luckily I’m not in there.” » A dull explosion sounded. “300!” 300! [le code désignant les blessés dans l’armée ukrainienne] » shout several voices.
A small group escapes from the hut, dragging a boy and a girl by their bulletproof vests. In combat gear, Mykyta Anykanov pounces on her, puts a tourniquet on one leg and, out of breath, asks the injured young woman: “Do you have a tourniquet?” » “I don’t have any,” she replies. “What do you mean you don’t have one?” Whore! Who has a turnstile? »
A slight smile appears on the flushed face of 20-year-old Roksolana Surmenko, who plays the role of the affected soldier, before it turns into a small laugh. A brace of lightness that reminds us that this is all just training.
Military training at the BetaTactic center in the Poltava region (Ukraine), October 15, 2023. Trainees simulate injuries during a combat exercise. GUILLAUME HERBAUT/VU’ FOR “THE WORLD”
The two-hour excursion through forests and clearings, in conditions close to the “reality” and violence of war, which takes place a few hundred kilometers from the training camp, in the Poltava region, 200 kilometers southeast of Kiev, is the end point of a three-day training course, which is reserved for civilians.
Here, eight young people between the ages of 20 and 30, all from the Ukrainian capital, are following the program. On the program: war medicine, shooting with various weapons, explosives training, the use of live bullets on balloons representing the enemy … The final stage of this October 15, under the direction of inflexible military instructors, is to simulate the attack of a small group of soldiers . Shortly before, the head of the BetaTactic camp, Mykhailo Slousarenko, warned his “students”: “If you tell me that you are tired or fed up, understand that I don’t care.” »
Ready to fight
The end of the training with screams of joy, the photos and videos that inevitably end up on social networks hide another, much less joyful reality. That of the young city dwellers who go to the center to be “ready” for battle: “motivated and intelligent people, artists, programmers, designers, the flower of the nation,” as Petro Khimitch, instructor in charge, describes them. Mining training.
“Civilians understand that one day they will be mobilized,” explains Dmytro Satskiy, one of the soldiers training. “There are things they will only be able to learn at the front,” says Mykhaïlo Slousarenko, who reports that more and more civilians are interested in this training. “But we’re trying to teach them as many basics as possible. And then you have the right to make mistakes here. »
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