These are the Ukrainian troops who will face down Russian tanks armed with British NLAW missiles if Vladimir Putin gives the green light to invade.
‘God Save the Queen!’ bellowed Lieutenant Colonel Ihor Bezogluk, as he welcomed MailOnline journalists to a base 50 miles north of Kyiv where his troops were training to use the NLAWS (Next generation Light Anti-Tank Weapons).
He and the men and women of 72nd Mechanised Brigade, whose skull emblem bears the motto ‘Ukraine or Death’, said the missiles were nothing short of a ‘game changer’ for their armed forces.
‘Thank you to Great Britain for giving us the NLAWS – anything that can help us to defend our country is very well-received,’ said Lt Col Bezogluk, 50 at Desna training camp, where an old Soviet T-52 tank on a plinth greets visitors.
‘These missiles have changed the war for us. It means we can fight the Russians and it doesn’t matter how many of them there are now that we have a way of stopping their armour. The Russians cannot scare us with numbers anymore.
‘As you can see we are training to defend a city as well as in trench warfare and we will be able to fight the enemy. ‘
Pictured: These are the Ukrainian troops who will face down Russian tanks armed with British NLAW missiles if Vladimir Putin gives the green light to invade
‘God Save the Queen!’ bellowed Lieutenant Colonel Ihor Bezogluk, as he welcomed MailOnline journalists to a base 50 miles north of Kyiv where his troops were training to use the NLAWS (Next generation Light Anti-Tank Weapons).
The NLAW is hailed as an extremely easy weapon to learn, taking barely an hour to master, giving a single soldier the ability to take out a main battle tank from up to 800m away
Asked if there would be live-fire exercises of the missiles, the Lt Col added: ‘No, we are saving them for the Russians if they come.’
As he spoke, hundreds of his men were racing across the muddy ground carrying the easily portable 12.5kg NLAWs on their backs as they dived in and out of trenches and practised aiming through mock-up window frames.
They were marking mock tank targets with laser sights to simulate the targeting and firing of the missiles in earnest.
In the background, the incessant crackle of Kalashnikov assault rifles from the adjacent firing range made the training scenario all-too realistic.
Their exercises were a graphic demonstration of how the introduction of the 2,000 British missiles could cause the Kremlin plotters to think again about an invasion.
Hundreds of men were racing across the muddy ground carrying the easily
