The paper states that US training of Ukrainian soldiers is nothing new: From 2015 until the weeks before the Russian attack, a total of 23,000 Ukrainian soldiers were trained in Ukraine, most of whom were members of the US National Guard. According to the newspaper, the Pentagon withdrew US forces from the Eastern European country in the run-up to the attack.
The US Department of Defense announced late last month that the training has not stopped: Ukrainian soldiers will be transferred abroad and ready to use Western military equipment and weapons, mostly in European facilities.
They will get a quick start on the hardware they will receive. The goal is for them to be able to return home as quickly as possible and train fellow soldiers to use the equipment themselves, General Joseph Hilbert, commander of the Seventh US Training Center in Europe, told the newspaper.
Hill also cites an example: he wrote that 220 Ukrainians were trained to use the American M777. Washington promised Kyiv 90 such cannons. Twenty men were trained to control the Phoenix Ghost drones, of which Ukraine could count on 121. “This is just the beginning,” a defense official told the portal.
Cover photo: 2014 US-Ukrainian military exercises. Cover photo illustration. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
