Taiwan needs to learn resilience lessons from Ukraine: Experts

Taipei, Sept. 19 (CNA) Taiwan should draw lessons from Ukraine's wartime experience, international experts said at a forum on resilience building in Taipei on Saturday, stressing the need for training to build a resilient society capable of recovery in a crisis.

The changes in defense technology over the last three years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 have been "phenomenal," said Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in the United States.

No country in the world is ready for what is described as "adaptive warfare," the kind Russia and Ukraine are engaged in, Montgomery said in a joint interview on the sidelines of the second Resilient Taiwan for Sustainable Democracy International Forum.

Montgomery, a retired rear admiral, said he has returned to Ukraine every three months and witnessed new forms of warfare, new techniques, new tactics -- along with new equipment, hardware, and software developed in response to events on the battlefield.

Ukraine has consistently stayed three to six months ahead of the Russians, but a serious challenge has emerged with the Russians' development of the Geran‑5, a rocket‑propelled drone that is much faster than previous models and is creating problems for Ukraine, he said.

The Chinese are learning about this adaptive warfare in a way Taiwan is not, Montgomery warned.

"Taiwan's got to figure out how to work with the United States, to work with Ukraine, and get all [those] battlefield lessons learned there."

Clara Kaluderovic, co‑founder and CEO of Mental Health Global, which works in Ukraine, said that while certain wartime experiences -- such as the terror of being hunted by drones -- cannot be fully anticipated, civilians can be trained to respond effectively when feeling fear and panic.

Drawing from her personal experience in Ukraine, Kaluderovic described being evacuated from a train due to drone threats and the difficulty of coping with such fear.

To build resilience, Kaluderovic suggested mass training on emergency procedures so people can fall back on learned responses, similar to soldiers.

Noting Ukraine's transparency and responsiveness to public concerns, she said preparedness and transparency are the two most critical lessons for Taiwan.

Kaluderovic said Taiwan can send personnel or build deeper connections with Ukraine's ecosystem to truly learn from its experience, fully grasp the realities of modern warfare, and understand how the ecosystem functions.

Concluding the forum, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) reaffirmed Taiwan's determination to strengthen its defense capabilities, stressing that this effort is not driven by a desire for conflict, but by the need to prevent it.

Meanwhile, Hsiao said Taiwan continues to learn from its international partners, drawing especially from the difficult lessons of Ukraine. Modern security challenges are evolving at a rapid pace, and Taiwan must adapt accordingly, she said.

The Presidential Office hosted the forum for the second consecutive year to promote the concept of whole‑of‑society resilience and assess Taiwan's preparedness amid threats from China, according to a press release issued earlier this week.