Ukrainian soldiers with frontline experience are set to provide specialized training to the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) in the evolving theater of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) warfare.

In a reciprocal knowledge-transfer agreement, Ukrainian civil servants will also instruct German officials on strategies for preventing and managing large-scale wartime structural damage.

According to reports from German Foreign Policy, these initiatives are the result of high-level agreements finalized between German and Ukrainian officials over the past eight days.

The emergency measures to train German military personnel in both defensive and offensive drone operations follow a sobering NATO exercise last May. The drills revealed that the military alliance remains fundamentally underprepared for the high-tech, high-intensity warfare that has become a daily reality in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Under the current framework, Ukrainian combat veterans will be deployed to the Bundeswehr’s elite training academies.

Parallel to the military track, the state of Schleswig-Holstein and Ukraine’s Kherson region have entered a partnership. Civil servants from Kherson are scheduled to travel to Kiel to brief German authorities—including police, fire departments, and hospital administrators—on essential protective protocols against drone and missile strikes.

NATO exercise failures trigger German alarm

A NATO maneuver in May 2025 is cited as the primary catalyst for the decision to bring Ukrainian military personnel to Germany as instructors.

Approximately 16,000 troops from 12 NATO nations participated in the “Hedgehog 2025” combat exercises. As part of the simulation, a unit of nearly a dozen Ukrainian drone specialists, some with active frontline experience, launched simulated attacks against NATO forces.

The results were catastrophic for the NATO contingents. Within a single half-day window, the Ukrainian team successfully destroyed 17 armored vehicles and executed 30 additional strikes on strategic targets.

The Ukrainians relied on battlefield data obtained in real-time and analyzed via artificial intelligence (AI), utilizing AI-based target selection.

According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal last week, this technology facilitates lightning-fast movement, creating an accelerated “kill chain” summarized as: “See, share, strike.”

In another segment of the exercise, a participant reported that two NATO battalions were effectively neutralized within a single day. The NATO units were unable to mount a single counter-offensive against the Ukrainian team.

German military seeks to leverage Ukrainian “combat experience”

Nearly four years after the onset of the war in Ukraine, the Bundeswehr is beginning to address these vulnerabilities more comprehensively.

Reports indicate that German paratroopers are currently training “more intensively with drones for the first time.”

The plan to integrate Ukrainian soldiers as instructors aims to place their specialized knowledge of attack tactics and defensive countermeasures at the disposal of the Bundeswehr.

A formal agreement on this cooperation was signed last Friday by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

According to a spokesperson for the German military, the objective is to “incorporate the experiences of Ukrainian soldiers into the curriculum of military schools.”

German officers have emphasized that no entity within NATO currently possesses more practical combat experience than Ukraine, stating, “We must take advantage of this.”

However, a significant logistical hurdle remains: Kyiv faces severe challenges in troop recruitment, meaning it can currently only spare instructors for short-term deployments to Germany.

Battle-tested unmanned aerial vehicles

Berlin is also benefiting from the production of Ukrainian-designed drones within the Federal Republic.

In October, the German and Ukrainian governments signed a memorandum of understanding on industrial cooperation.

By December, German drone manufacturer Quantum Systems and Ukrainian producer Frontline Robotics established a joint venture near Munich named Quantum Frontline Industries (QFI). The facility produces the Frontline Robotics LINZA drone, providing a manufacturing base shielded from Russian missile strikes.

The operation is moving toward industrial-scale output, with plans to produce up to 10,000 units annually.

By maintaining close contact with the frontlines to iteratively improve drone designs, the German UAV industry is ensuring it remains at the cutting edge of technology.

Given the rapid innovation cycles inherent in high-tech warfare, this provides a critical competitive advantage.

According to Pistorius, drone production within Germany offers local authorities the opportunity to learn from the “incredible amount of data and wealth of experience gathered on the Ukrainian battlefield.”

Other firms, such as Wingcopter (Germany) and TAF Industries (Ukraine), have also formed joint ventures for drone production, with long-term plans to supply NATO member states.

Civil servants to undergo “warfare” training

Finally, German officials intend to utilize Ukraine’s wartime expertise to prepare their own civilian administration for potential conflict.

Earlier this week, a delegation from the Kherson region led by Governor Oleksandr Prokudin visited Kiel as part of a two-day security conference. The mission was to provide insights into the measures taken to protect civilians and infrastructure during active hostilities.

Kiel and the city of Kherson have been partners since 2024, while the Kherson region and the state of Schleswig-Holstein established a partnership in 2023.

According to officials in Schleswig-Holstein, Kherson is “under constant attack,” resulting in “fatalities, injuries, and repeated strikes on energy infrastructure.”

As a result, the region has “gained extensive experience in the fields of resilience, civil defense, and disaster control over recent years.”

Prokudin noted that this expertise covers “drone defense, population evacuation, first aid in scenarios where hospitals are no longer functional, and military protocols during total power outages.”

In Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein State Premier Daniel Günther praised the Kherson delegation, stating they provided “very concrete and valuable information.”

Germans “learning the art of war”

Günther, a member of the CDU, explained that German officials learned, for instance, “how critical infrastructure is stabilized despite constant attacks, how hospitals and shelters are moved underground, how schools and kindergartens remain operational, how demining efforts are organized, and how the administration remains functional.”

Kherson currently operates 14 underground hospitals and nine underground schools, with six additional underground schools under construction. To protect against drone strikes, roads are being covered with large-scale netting.

According to reports, representatives from the Kherson region will “teach Schleswig-Holstein officials how to defend themselves” in the future.

Training courses led by Ukrainians will soon be offered in Kiel for police, fire services, and other stakeholders in civil protection and disaster management.

“Schleswig-Holstein is taking the lead,” Günther stated, adding that “Germany still needs to address some deficiencies in terms of civil defense capacity, disaster control, and general resilience.”