UK, French troops drill for urban combat using Ukraine insights

A French officer, perched on a British armoured vehicle camouflaged with branches in the small town of Jeoffrecourt, translated commands for armoured infantry troops from Britain.

The FFL and the Royal Welsh First Battalion were part of a team trying to capture this town of 5,000 residents Tuesday during a two-week training exercise.

The exercises come as French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are spearheading European efforts to send what they call a "reassurance force" to Ukraine after any end to the war sparked by Russia's 2022 invasion.

"We look at what is happening in theatres of operation and new modes of action to integrate them," said Lieutenant Colonel Romain, an FFL training officer who gave only his first name under French military policy.

A member of his 13th Demi-Brigade toggled a joystick from a basement where a video feed showed footage from the drone he controlled as it flew above the streets.

With just four radios, four laptops and a white sheet serving as a makeshift projection screen, the setup was spartan but for good reason, said the brigade's commanding officer, Colonel Benjamin Brunet.

"We drill to change position every six hours," Brunet said, a lesson gleaned from Ukraine, where adversaries quickly spot the electromagnetic radiation emitted from command posts to destroy them.

For Captain Ed, a British intelligence officer who also could give only his first name, France and Britain have a proven track record of working together because they "share a similar mindset and values".

"Since 2018, the French and British have been together in Estonia" as part of a mission set up by NATO on its eastern flank, the captain said.

"We are training and we are ready to go anywhere in the world," he said.