Inside the Viking-themed NATO camp where Ukrainian troops train for the front

CAMP JOMSBORG, POLAND — Ukrainian soldiers are training to combat Russia's ongoing invasion of their state astatine a Viking-themed campy purpose-built connected NATO soil.

Training astatine Camp Jomsborg successful eastbound Poland, astir 2 hours from the separator pinch Ukraine, is led by the Norwegians, whose Viking ancestors were famed for their warfighting and conquests passim Europe. That practice is visible crossed the training center.

When Business Insider visited the sprawling campy this summer, elements of that chopped warrior culture, Viking references and symbols, stood alongside drone labs, immense trench networks, shooting ranges, and mock training villages constructed to lucifer the sadistic battlefield awaiting Ukrainian troops erstwhile they return home.

Urban combat and fields of trenches

Entering the training campy requires driving on long, bladed tracks among thickets of trees that hint astatine the standard of the project. The campy was built rapidly, felling 75,000 trees to create a ample clearing successful the dense forest, pinch piles of logs still heaped on the approach.

Norway says that the area is larger than 100 shot fields and is the "largest campy the Norwegian Armed Forces has ever built abroad." Construction took conscionable a fewer months past year, pinch Maj. John, the S3 Operations Officer successful complaint of synchronizing the wide training operation, telling Business Insider that the campy was built "very fast."

The training campy recreates galore of the combat environments Ukrainian troops are astir apt to brushwood erstwhile they leave, specified arsenic trenches, forests, municipality areas, and unfastened fields.

Some of the large, cleared fields astatine Camp Jomsborg are utilized for training battles wherever Western forces simulate Russian attacks, often engaging Ukrainian soldiers pinch Soviet-designed tanks, armored vehicles, and motorcycles while besides moving pinch drones.

Other fields are marked by aggregate ample trench networks, wherever soldiers study really to seize, protect, and clasp them, including really to get successful and retired without incurring casualties. Norway says that hundreds of meters of trenches person been carved into the earth. In these areas, location are besides mock Russian foxholes for Ukrainian soldiers to believe attacking and grenade throwing.

Another area of the campy hosts what looks for illustration a Ukrainian village, pinch a clone state station, shipping containers stacked to look for illustration buildings that soldiers tin move and alert drones through, buses, and overturned, burnt-out cars scattered about.

Soldiers besides train successful Jomsborg's forested areas to hole for woodland combat.

The campy has 5 shooting ranges, allowing hundreds of Ukrainians to train simultaneously. They besides usage a sprout house, a training building that trains troops for fights wrong buildings.

The training astatine Camp Jomsborg is designed to intimately reflector combat, utilizing laser systems to simulate a weapon's effects, mini explosive charges to mimic blasts, and stun grenades to further recreate battlefield conditions.

A drone airstrip facilitates drone use passim training, and a drone laboratory allows soldiers to test, repair, modify, and 3D people parts, conscionable arsenic they do adjacent the front. The abstraction besides gives Norwegian instructors a chance to study Ukrainian innovations and cod lessons for their ain military.

Ukraine determines what its troops request to learn, while NATO instructors accommodate the training alongside Ukrainian counterparts. The training programme includes caller recruits and experienced soldiers who tin return to their units and stock what they've learned.

Beyond the training grounds, the campy provides participating militaries pinch sleeping tents, a aesculapian center, eating facilities, a chaplaincy, outdoor sports areas, and recreational halls.

During the World Cup, the Norwegian subject hosted watch parties for its country's games successful its hall.

A Viking-themed camp

The campy is filled pinch references to the Vikings and Norse gods. Street signs passim the campy see Thor Street and Odin Road, while Camp Jomsborg itself is named aft a legendary Viking fortress.

The Viking imagery extends to the campy entrance, wherever a helmeted warrior and Viking vessel shake hands arriving troops alongside the Ukrainian flag.

Molde said the legendary warrior brotherhood associated pinch Jomsborg, a wall connected the Baltic Sea, was known for its subject and professionalism.

"That's wherever the sanction comes from," he said.

The Telemark Battalion, whose emblem is simply a Viking ship, leads the training astatine Jomsborg. The elite portion has deployed connected combat missions successful the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and its conflict outcry is "to Valhalla!" In training, it emphasizes a "warrior mentality," school troops to "thrive successful harsh conditions."

"We tie that warrior mentality from our Viking heritage," John said, "and the Viking civilization is very important for us."

John said the battalion's type of the "Viking mentality" isn't astir reckless aggression aliases "doing stupid stuff." Instead, it's astir applying its strongest qualities wrong the ethical and civilized standards required of modern soldiers.

Preparing for war

But while the Viking civilization abounds astatine Camp Jomsborg, the training leans heavy connected Ukraine, its people, and experiences.

Molde said that very early successful the process, they decided the training should beryllium "as adjacent to Ukraine arsenic possible" to give soldiers more training clip and thief instructors support lessons up to day pinch the demands of a quickly changing battlefield.

The battlefield changes truthful quickly that strategies and weaponry tin go outdated successful weeks, soldiers say.

As the fighting evolves, truthful does the camp. Instructors regularly update their tactics, equipment, and moreover the trench layouts to bespeak changes astatine the front.

"Every minute, each hr we person them for training, it's astir life and decease because we cognize that each clip we vessel those buses out, a percent of those guys, which besides ties relations to our instructors, they will, successful a worst case, beryllium dead," Molde said.