The Automobile Federation of Ukraine, in collaboration with the National Guard and Come Back Alive foundation, spent eight days training 68 cadets in the Odesa Military Academy’s Faculty of Airborne Forces and Marine Corps in defensive off-road truck driving. The course is intended to help them learn how to drive a pickup on the frontlines and properly evade drone attacks.

This was the second time the FAU and Come Back Alive hosted such a class for the VAO’s airborne and marine cadets, previously conducting one in July 2025.

The program was officially launched in June 2024 by the FAU, though the federation had already been training Ukrainian troops since that January. It is led by Andriy Yaromenko, owner of the PILOT Safe Driving Center and an auto slalom driver who represented Ukraine at the 2022 FIA Motorsport Games.

“This will definitely improve the driving skills of our cadets, future officers, who will be able to use our experience in their driving lives,” Yaromenko said. “Future officers will have drivers under their command whom they will be able to teach. They will be able to drive the best they can.

“In today’s rather difficult times, drivers, especially military drivers, and military officers must be able to get out of emergency situations and avoid getting into such situations. This course is designed to improve their driving in any difficult scenarios.”

Courses are free for soldiers to attend as expenses are covered by sponsors and the FAU. Besides service academy students, active-duty personnel have also taken part like members of the National Guard and mobile fire groups that directly respond to drone waves.

While cadets are mainly taught to drive purpose-built military vehicles for obvious reasons, pickups and similar cars are a premium as well because they’re more mobile and affordable. However, although it’s little different than a regular civilian pickup, the cadets don’t have much experience in driving them under fire.

“At the academy, we’re taught how to only drive Class C and above vehicles like KrAZ, KAMAZ, BTR, and so on. We don’t have the driving skills for pickup trucks and cars that we need in the field,” one cadet offered. “In my opinion, safe driving skills have a direct impact on survival skills.”

Another said, “During this course, I became more confident in driving a car, especially passenger cars. This course will help me in the future with preparing my men, namely mechanics and drivers.”

As drone warfare continues to evolve, such driving skills have become even more vital. The cadets will soon head to the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces or Ukrainian Marine Corps, where they’ll be seeing frontline action and have to avoid strikes by FPVs. Mobile fire groups closer to Ukrainian cities have a similar role as their pickups are armed with machine guns to shoot them down and protect civilian infrastructure.

“They’re often using FPV drones that fly at speeds of more than a hundred kilometers an hour. What does this course give us? In the field, we gain the necessary skills so that we can escape from these FPVs,” a cadet said.

The FIA, Ukraine’s FIA member club, has been active in supporting the Armed Forces and ensuring a safe return for motorsports in the country. As the lead sanctioning body for motorsports in the country, it’s hosted seminars alongside AFU troops teaching officials how to organize and react should Russian attacks take place during races.

“I believe this information will help me protect the vehicles that’ll be in my unit and teach drivers how to maintain and drive their cars properly,” concluded another cadet.

Featured image credit: Come Back Alive