Operation UNIFIER supports Ukraine's military leadership development training in Latvia

September 5, 2023 - Defence Stories

By: Major Christopher Daniel, Senior Public Affairs Officer, Joint Task Force-Ukraine

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The Leadership Development Training Element focuses on delivering the Battalion Staff Officer Training course, which is designed to increase the effectiveness of Ukrainian officers in coordinating the operations of their battalions.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Latvian National Armed Forces (LNAF) are working together in delivering leadership development training to junior officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). The training incorporates methodologies from both Latvia and Canada that are specifically designed to address the training requirements outlined by the AFU to enhance their combat effectiveness.

This training is being conducted by the Leadership Development Training Element (LDTE) in Latvia as part of Operation UNIFIER, the CAF's military training and capacity building mission in support of the AFU.

"LDTE is focused on delivering the Battalion Staff Officer Training (BSOT) course," said Lieutenant-Colonel (LCol) Matthew Johns, LDTE Course Director. "This course is designed to increase the effectiveness of Ukrainian officers in coordinating the operations of their battalions."

As the Course Director and the Commander for LDTE, LCol Johns leads the team of 13 CAF and six LNAF instructors and manages their relationships to their higher and flanking headquarters. He also instructs and mentors, primarily on keystone lectures to set the conditions for other instructors.

LCol Johns is an Armoured Officer with Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians). He comes from the Canadian Army Command and Staff College, located in Kingston, Ontario where he worked as a member of the directing staff and an instructor on the Army Operations Course. He has extensive experience in Brigade and Battalion staff positions, having worked in the G1 (personnel), G3 (operations), and G5 (planning) cells for 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group. Coupled with a rotation to Ukraine as part of Op UNIFIER in 2017, he brings a wealth of experience to the training.

"We teach doctrine, planning, and orders delivery and execution," said LCol Johns. "This is both to enhance the overall capabilities of Ukrainian officers and to set them up for future success as they transition their military procedure to a more Western style of operation. The course aims to make Ukrainian officers, and by extension their staff and thus their battalions, more lethal and effective on the battlefield. This is done by focusing on planning and synchronizing effects and capabilities through a combination of lectures and hands-on practices, including tactical decision games and tabletop exercises".

"The candidates are inspiring, coming with various levels of military experience. They demonstrate an incredible openness to learn and to share their own experiences with us, a valuable contribution to our own understanding of the current situation," said LCol Johns. "The students come focused on learning, they have been excellent and represent the full spectrum of services of the AFU. They arrive from the battlefield focused and their capacity to absorb a tremendous amount of information in a short time is astounding."