The Royal Navy divers are training their Ukrainian counterparts to find and safely defuse bombs and mine warfare.

This was stated on the official website of the Royal Navy.

Specialist personnel from the Royal Navy’s Diving and Threat Exploitation Group have been training Ukrainian divers for 12 months. Training takes place both in the shallows and in deep-water areas on the territory of Scotland.

The units of both countries adopted each other’s best skills. This training will help Ukrainian specialist personnel to better understand future threats during demining of water areas.

In addition, relations and mutual understanding between the units for joint operations improved during this time.

The teams were trained with crewless underwater vehicles. Once a threat was identified, Ukrainian divers moved in to neutralise the device and make the area safe.

“The Ukrainian Navy divers have been great, it’s been a brilliant opportunity to share experience and learn techniques from each other. The Ukrainians are really focused and their enthusiasm for the training has been amazing,” Lieutenant Ali Aindow.

In addition, there are two Sandown-class minehunters Cherkasy and Chernigiv in the UK. The minehunters were previously used by the Royal Navy and were named HMS Grimsby and HMS Shoreham.

As Militarnyi previously reported, the Ukrainian Navy is planning to create a full-fledged mine countermeasures division.

The creation of such a formation, in particular, is required to ensure the safety of civil shipping.

According to the Commander of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksii Neizhpapa, Sandown-class minehunters Chernihiv and Cherkasy will be the first to take part in mine clearance operations in the Black Sea and freeing of the sea from mines to protect civilian shipping.

In turn, the Netherlands will transfer two Alkmaar-class minesweepers to Ukraine for mine disposal. The Ukrainian Navy is expected to receive these ships in 2025.