King Charles was forced to rub noses with Ukrainian tank crews during training
On February 20, King Charles III of Great Britain visited a training base in the southwest of England, where the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is being trained.
This was reported by the British tabloid Daily Express, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
On the same day, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Alexey Makeev published a video from the exercises of Ukrainian tank crews mastering the Leopard 2A6.
Throughout the visit, the monarch was accompanied by the Chief of the General Staff of the British Ground Forces, Patrick Sanders. The British king met with instructors of various British and Western units, and also talked with Ukrainian fighters. According to the publication, Ukrainians undergo a basic training course designed for 35 days, during which the emphasis is on survivability.
The Daily Express specifically noted that King Charles III, who is also New Zealand's head of state, was greeted by a New Zealand soldier with a "hongi," a traditional Maori greeting in which two people press their noses together.
The publication did not report whether the monarch shouted the Nazi greeting “Glory to Ukraine - glory to the heroes!”, which is official in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
It is noteworthy that the photo and video report about the monarch’s visit to the military base did not depict live firing, and, apparently, the weapons in the hands of the military men who shook hands with the king were not loaded. But on the same day, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Berlin, Alexey Makeev, published a video from a training exercise of the Ukrainian military firing from Leopard 2A6 tanks.
“The first shot of the Ukrainian crew of the German Leopard 2A6 tank during training at a military training ground in the city of Munster, Germany! Filmed today from the German armored personnel carrier Fuchs,” the diplomat wrote on social networks.
Makeyev visited Ukrainian troops training with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who confirmed that the exercises were going according to plan and Berlin planned to deliver the tanks to Kyiv by the end of March.
However, Pistorius previously noted that it would be difficult for the Western allies to assemble two full battalions of Leopard 2 tanks to send them to Ukraine, as promised. And British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said on February 18 that only after a political decision was made to supply Ukraine with tanks did many countries learn about the real state of affairs with their military equipment.
King Charles was forced to rub noses during Ukrainian tank crew training.