Operation Interflex: how allies train Ukrainian service personnel in the United Kingdom

Operation Interflex is one of the key components of the United Kingdom’s military support for Ukraine, serving as a multinational training programme delivered in cooperation with partner nations. Since 2022, over 62,000 service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have completed training under the programme.
Funding for Operation Interflex has been extended through the end of 2026.

The operation aims to provide rapid, systematic training to prepare Ukrainian service personnel for modern high-intensity warfare. Training is delivered in the United Kingdom with the participation of instructors from partner nations.

The programme succeeded Operation Orbital, a British military training mission that operated before the full-scale invasion and focused on long-term training. Operation Interflex, by contrast, is adapted to wartime realities and the immediate needs of the front line.

Operation Interflex is led by the British Armed Forces. The training also involves instructors from more than ten partner countries, including those from Europe, North America, and Oceania.

This format enables the integration of varied combat experience and the standards applied by NATO member states.

The basic Interflex course lasts several weeks and focuses on developing the key skills required on the battlefield:

• Basic infantry training;
• Small unit tactics;
• Weapons handling and marksmanship;
• Combat engineering and mine awareness;
• Tactical medicine;
• Operations in urban environments and trench warfare.

The programme is regularly updated based on the combat experience of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and evolving enemy tactics. By scale and scope of training, Operation Interflex ranks among the largest training missions for a foreign military delivered by the United Kingdom in recent decades.