Lost in translation: Germany’s challenges training Ukrainian soldiers
Old tanks, ageing recruits and a lack of competent interpreters complicate Berlin’s efforts
Laura Pitel in Klietz 5 HOURS AGO
https://www.ft.com/content/5bcb359e-f0ae-475d-9773-b89c0ebe0a1b

Teaching inexperienced soldiers how to operate a tank on the front line in just six weeks was never going to be easy.

But when German, Dutch and Danish officers gathered in a lush green patch of the North German countryside to train Ukrainian men, they were not expecting a shortage of competent interpreters to be the top issue.

“Interpreters are challenge number one,” said Martin Bonn, a Dutch brigadier general who is deputy head of the multinational EU training mission launched last November to educate Ukrainians on a range of weapons and tactics. Kyiv and western capitals are providing translators, who often struggle with the necessary vocabulary.