As the war shifts, Ukrainian soldiers in the U.K. learn offensive tactics from Canada

With the rat-a-tat-tat of machine-gun fire and the putrid smell of explosives in the air, a squad of Ukrainian troops dashes to the cover of a foxhole lined with sandbags.

Some in the group return fire, with their rounds striking next to a concrete structure on a hillside hundreds of metres away.

It's a convincing simulation, meant to imitate the chaos and intensity of real battlefield conditions — only this scene is playing out in the picturesque rolling hills of southern England, rather than in the conflict zones of Ukraine's Donbas or Kherson regions.

"I'm ready to take up arms and go to the front and fight against the invaders," said a 20-something Ukrainian recruit taking part in the simulation, who asked to be called by his nickname, Panda.

He and about 200 other Ukrainians have just completed the final part of an intensive five-week training course that's been conducted under the auspices of the British Ministry of Defence.

The media event at the training base was carefully staged by British defence staff, with the Ukrainian soldiers hand-picked for interviews and the media given a very tight time frame to conduct them. CBC News agreed, under British operating rules, to hide the identities and faces of the Ukrainians.

Panda said until just a few weeks ago he was a design engineer working in the western part of Ukraine — and he had never fired a gun. But, very quickly, he's had to assimilate himself into a military mindset.

"I really want this war to end as soon as possible, and with the support of our allies, we can get this to happen," he told a CBC News crew through a translator during a short interview at the British training area.

Earlier this week, Britain's Ministry of Defence invited foreign journalists, including from Canada, to observe the training program for Ukrainian recruits, which it calls Operation Interflex.

The goal is to eventually give up to 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers a NATO-quality immersion in the basics of military combat, tactics and battlefield casualty response.

Canada is one of several Western partners taking part in the program, with approximately 160 military personnel stationed in England.

New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Latvia and Denmark are among the other countries participating in the British-led program.

For Canada's military, it is the second-generation version of what began in 2015 as Operation Unifier, which was based out of the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security near Lviv, Ukraine.

Over seven years, thousands of Ukrainian recruits were either trained or had their skills upgraded by Canadian soldiers before Russia's Feb. 24 invasion led to the program's abrupt closure.

Canada's Department of Defence says the training in the U.K. augments almost $900 million in other assistance Ottawa provided to Ukraine's army, which includes supplying body armour, drones, anti-tank weapons and M777 artillery pieces.

"There's definitely a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose to what we are doing," said Maj. Mike Pal, who leads the Canadian training contingent in the U.K. but is based in Edmonton with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

"We're essentially taking Ukrainian civilians and turning them into soldiers."

The simulations CBC News observed included a live-fire exercise with smoke and machine guns, a mass casualty event where the recruits had to treat soldiers wounded in battle and, finally, a series of lessons on cleaning and loading firearms, including Javelin anti-tank missiles.

As the trajectory of the war has changed in Ukraine, so has the nature of the training in the U.K., the military instructors say.

"I see a pretty stark change," said Pal. "What I noticed about the courses that ran throughout the summer was there was a real focus on defensive operations — and training these guys to be able to survive through the summer in order to fight through the fall.

"We're now trying really hard to instil in the candidates what I call an offensive spirit because we are aware of the way the campaign is going in Ukraine."

In recent weeks, Ukraine's army has reclaimed thousands of square kilometres of territory in eastern Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions. It has also scored a significant breakthrough in the Kherson region west of the Dnipro River.

Many military analysts believe Ukraine now has the initiative and has Russian President Vladimir Putin's army responding to its moves.

Where the new recruits from this cohort will end up will be determined by the leaders of the Ukrainian units they're assigned to.

While some may be dispatched to the front lines immediately, others will spend several more weeks or months being trained on specialized equipment.

The commander of Operation Interflex told CBC News that the Ukrainian recruits will leave the U.K. with new equipment, uniforms and fully equipped first-aid kits.

And while the training is more comprehensive than what they would get in Ukraine, the key difference, he said, is that it can be done safely away from the battle zone.

"I think it makes a massive difference," said British Lt-Col. Buchan Smith. "They are taken away from all that conflict back home and given all the resources that they need to have as professional and realistic training as possible."