The UK Audit Office found that training and supplying Ukrainian forces was undermining the capabilities of British troops and recommended the Ministry of Defence “balance Ukraine's needs with UK strategic interests”.
The government says British troops have trained so much Ukrainian soldiers that the country's own land forces are struggling to get vital training time at their own training facilities. Report The National Audit Office (NAO), an independent cost-benefit assessment body funded by the British government, also concluded that replacing the vast amount of equipment donated to Ukraine from Britain's own stockpile would cost billions of dollars and take years to procure.
Regarding the possibility that these two factors could limit the British Army's ability to carry out its core missions, the NAO observed: “The Ministry of Defence recognises that Interflex will limit the ability of the British Army to train its own soldiers at its training areas…As the Ministry of Defence considers its future support for Ukraine, it will need to continue to balance Ukraine's needs with UK strategic interests and the need to maintain the UK's own military capabilities by maintaining equipment stockpiles and the provision of sufficient training to British forces.”
Since the start of a new phase of Russia's occupation of Ukraine in 2022, more than 42,000 Ukrainian troops have been trained by the UK, from new infantry soldiers to tank commanders, officers and pilots.
This means a significant investment of time by British military personnel and the use of defense facilities for training. Indeed, the NAO found that requests by British troops to use UK training facilities were rejected at eight times the usual rate in 2023 because the facilities were being used to train Ukrainian forces instead.
But a longer-term concern may be equipment. Among its key findings, the NAO report said there were more than 676 air flights and 3,000 road and rail trips transporting military equipment from the UK to Ukraine. The equipment taken from UK stockpiles included “air defence missiles, drones, cruise missiles, tanks, ships, clothing and personal equipment”, and its replenishment will cost £2.7bn, with some not returning to shelves until 2030-31.
Just hours after the report was published, the British government announced new aid for Ukraine. Equivalent of £600 million.
The decline in ammunition stockpiles, not only by the UK but also by other Western countries donating to Kiev's defence, is seen as a serious problem by some senior defence officials. As previously reported, the UK government has warned that “stockpiles are looking a bit low” in 2023, citing “depleted” supplies of some key items.
British Army General Richard Barrons said that if the UK itself were to be involved in a hard war, its military, hollowed out by decades of budget cuts, would deplete its ammunition stockpiles in a day. Stockpiles take so long to build up – illustrated by the NAO saying today that it could take until the early 2030s to replenish the ammunition currently being sent to Ukraine – that the general said the British military currently requires “five to 10 years” of notice before going to war with a near-peer enemy.
