During the full-scale war, tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have undergone training in the UK under NATO instructors. According to a British officer identified as Major Maguire in a comment to Business Insider, Ukrainians often demonstrated greater “tactical imagination” than their trainers.
The Ukrainians "have a much greater tactical imagination than we do," he said.
He explained that Ukrainian soldiers, shaped by battlefield realities, take more risks and think outside the box, while British troops tend to follow established rules and doctrine.
Ukrainians surprised even experienced instructors
Maguire recalled a training scenario where Ukrainian soldiers were tasked with planning an ambush. After six hours, they presented "the most tactically brilliant plan I could think of,” using terrain in ways British instructors had not considered.
They were "far more flexible and comfortable coming off the doctrine," he noted.
Why Ukrainians outperform NATO approaches
Maguire suggested that this unconventional thinking stems from the fact that many Ukrainian soldiers are former civilians, not career military personnel bound by rigid hierarchy and doctrine.
"They're far happier taking levels of tactical risk, and consequently, they're just able to show a bit more imagination. Not all of them, but certainly the better ones can and did," he added.
British Army adapts to Ukrainian experience
According to Maguire, the British Army is now studying Ukrainian battlefield experience and adjusting its own approach to warfare. Before 2022, British forces prioritized “tactically safe” operations, but that mindset is now shifting.
Earlier, a single team of around 10 Ukrainian experts, acting as the adversary in a NATO exercise in Estonia, "eliminated" two Alliance battalions in a single day. More than 16,000 troops from 12 NATO countries had drilled alongside them. None of it was enough.
The Ukrainians did not overwhelm NATO with numbers. They simply used the battlefield awareness, drone integration, and kill-chain speed that three years of full-scale war had made routine
