Admiral Lord Alan West, a hero of the Falkland Islands War, made the accusations after Russian officials confessed the ship had sunk in the Black Sea.
According to reports, Ukraine claims to have attacked the vessel with a cruise missile after distracting the 12,490-tonne warship’s defences with drones.
In an interview with The Sun Online, the 73-year-old said that the training, which is part of an ongoing assistance package known as ‘Operation Orbital,’ provided Ukrainian personnel with the necessary know-how.
Last year, British specialists trained Ukrainian soldiers in naval warfare at the 198th Naval Forces Training Center, a diving school, and a Marine School.
According to the Ministry of Defence, they also taught sailors, pilots, and special Ukrainian marines as part of the critical mission.
The offer was part of a rotation of over 100 UK military troops from the army, navy, and RAF who have travelled in and out of Ukraine since 2015.
It is believed that at the time, Britain trained an astounding 22,000 Ukrainian troops.
“We absolutely were training the Ukrainians about naval warfare in some depth, so they will know how to utilise surface-to-surface missiles and the best way to deploy them,” Lord West revealed.
“The Neptune missile requires targeted information to determine its first flight route, after which it switches to its own sensors.”
The Ukrainian-made subsonic missile is based on the old Soviet Kh-35 anti-ship missile and has a range of over 200 MILES.
The entire system, which was first deployed in Ukraine last year, consists of a truck-based mobile launcher, four missiles, a reload vehicle, and a command and control vehicle.
It is intended to fly near the surface of the water in order to evade detection, and it then strikes its target before it even realises it is there.
He explained: “If the Ukrainians were able to use drones and other intelligence information which they may have got from us and other allies, to target this at a long range from the coast, then this will change the Russian tactics.”
