Yavoriv, Ukraine, July 9, 2015: A Ukrainian national guardsman, wearing camouflage, reacts to a simulated attack at a training facility in Yavoriv, Ukraine.

Some 300 members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team are in the Ukraine for a six-month deployment to train Ukrainian forces. But they admit that after more than a decade of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, they have little experience fighting a professional and technologically advanced foe.

“A Ukrainian platoon sergeant mentioned a time where he came into a direct fight with a BMP [Soviet-era infantry fighting vehicle] from 15 meters away,” he said. “They’ve attacked armor with anti-armor weapons from only 10 to 15 meters away, something we would have taught our soldiers is an absolute impossibility,” Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Hurt said.

Read more about how the U.S. and Ukrainian forces learn from each other here.