Foreign volunteers race to train new Ukrainian troops to be sent to the front
Former service members and combat medics from other countries are in Ukraine to train civilians. They typically have just days with new conscripts before they are sent to the front.
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Magnus Ek, 53, a retired Swedish lieutenant, is teaching a group of Ukrainian conscripts how to fire an AK-47 in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. Ek, who spent a decade as an instructor in Sweden, is among a group of foreign military volunteers who have gone to train Ukrainians how defend their country from Russia's invasion.
"You will find yourself in many strange shooting positions," Ek says, as he tromps around the snow-covered firing range where the temperatures hover around 16 degrees.
"So funny, so funny," says one of his students, a Ukrainian conscript.
Ek, who has served as a volunteer military trainer for months in Ukraine, uses physical comedy to
