The Pentagon is planning a major expansion of the number of Ukrainian troops that it will train in Germany and aims to start the new program in early 2023, US officials told The New York Times on Thursday.
The expanded program will enable the US military to train up to 800 Ukrainian troops each month, a battalion-sized force. The US has been training Ukrainian forces in Germany and other undisclosed locations in Europe since earlier in the war at a rate of about 300 troops per month, according to Pentagon statistics.
President Biden has already approved the new training program, which will take place at a US Army base in Grafenwoehr, Germany. Previous training efforts have been focused on using specific weapons systems, such as the HIMARS rocket systems. But the new program will be more advanced and will include battlefield tactics, such as coordinating infantry maneuvers with artillery support.
The US training program will reflect what Ukrainians have been going through in the UK. The British military started the program in the summer with the goal of training 10,000 Ukrainian troops in infantry tactics.
The new US training program reflects the ever-increasing US involvement in the war in Ukraine. The US is set to open a new command center in Germany that will be entirely dedicated to arming and training Ukrainian forces, signaling that Washington is planning to support a proxy war against Russia for years to come.
In the year 2525…..if man is still alive…..
Aye, there is the rub…
Do we have two Analyzers? Didn’t you have a different avatar photo before? if so, do you just appropriate people’s photos?
Very astute! I will appoint you as the President of the official Analyzer groupie. You’ll get a cool jacket for your service.
Send me the invite. I will then take someone else’s photo as new avatar.
We have three Don Bacons, two under Psudonyms Don Julio and Lemonie Alpaca…. Who R you to question authenticity…….?????????????.
We have one Don Bacon, one Don Julio, and one Lemonie Alpaca. Their writing styles differ and they post from different IPs. The evidence that they’re the same person is:
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
“Eve of Destruction”…………………..
These Neocons seem 2B right on schedule….!!!!!!!!!!
“US Will More Than Double Its Training Program for Ukrainian Troops The training will take place in Germany with the goal of training a Ukrainian battalion each month”
Ukraine is losing 10,000 troops a month on the battlefield. Soon there will be no Ukrainian men remaining to train.
If we say that you are right, then Ukraine will be losing 120.000 men per year – you might know that Ukraine has a similar population to France at the start of WWI – the French lost far more men for every month for 4 years in that war – given that Ukraine stand to lose more than the French would have lost had they not been on the winning side in WWI, it seems likely that Ukraine can last as long as France did.
Yes the war will drag on until the last Ukrainian is dead and Zelensky flees to one of his estates with his stolen fortune provided by the US.
If Zelenskyy was half as bad a dude as you make him out to be why on earth did Putin not just bribe him? Moreover are you sure that the Russians want to fight 4+ years for this they seem pretty worried about their own lack of motivation already:
But he’s a good “dude” … he luves the attention of the Sean Penns and the other Hollywood and Vogue types. He wants both the money and the love, you see …
Russia’s war here is not a choice … with or w/o Putin, this will continue until they have achieved what they can. We know this too, but don’t mind a new Afghanistan in Europe … you Europeans might.
While I’m not happy to have Ukraine serve as Putin’s Afghanistan I respect that you at least see just how pointless it could very likely turn out to be for the Russians to think they can beat the Ukrainians backed up by the richest parts of the world.
The problem with this is that, as verified by Kiev sources in an article I linked yesterday, the West is being bled dry of weapons very rapidly. We also have less ability to replace our losses.
Just In Time business practices are GREAT for maximizing corporate profits. Not so good in crisis situations. In the meantime, a lot of the rest of the world is turning away from the US and towards Russia.
Result of the Price Cap? Logistical issues for Russia. Causing Russia to cooperate with multiple nations to resolve these issues, bringing them closer together.
In the long run, it would serve US interests better if we responded to actual reality rather than the one they are selling to us.
Not being bled dry of weapons but of shells for the weapons.
JIT is a good point – the rest of the world turning away from the US and towards Russia is an undocumented assertion – what evidence I can dig up suggests that even some of their CSTO allies are turning against the Russians:
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-ally-kazakhstan-ukraine-war-2022-11?r=US&IR=T
Difficult to say so far the price of Ural oil has been below the cap so it has not been an issue. The figures for Russian exports will only be available later.
I beg to differ.
They should bring @disqus_WeTAwDV20k:disqus to this show. She will fit perfectly.
You can start with the film “Ukraine On Fire” and then watch analysis from Scott Ritter and Col. Douglas Macgregor. This will give you an understanding of the stakes involved in Ukraine for Russia.
I do not need to know the stacks involved in Ukraine for Russia – the Russian youth seems to need to know.
Not to mention the steaks.
Advisoring
Strategery
“US Will More Than Double Its Training Program for Ukrainian Troops”
US Defense Secretary: Added recruits ‘urgent’ to reverse ‘dangerous’ fall-off of Ukrainian and Russian body count in Bakhmut
The only body count in Bakhmut that us immense and tragic is Ukrainian. Why are Russians not allowed ntering the city? The place has become a cheese Rusdia holds out for Ukraine to move in more trouos, Russia’s aim is to demilitarize, Ukrainian aim is optics -/ they are “holding off” Rusdians.
To make mattters worse — Zelenski is all out against majority faith, Otrhodox Christians.
We know that all of his regime power is in hands of West Ukraine Catholics, But he seems to ignore that his cannon fodder are the majority, and with each passing day, they hate him more. So, what is next? Where are his soldiers comming from? We kniw that Poland already has iver 5,000 casualties, with over 1,500 dead, Tge info came out after Polishbauthorities recommended US style military cemerery, and that caused a scandal.
“The only body count in Bakhmut that [is] immense and tragic is Ukrainian.”
Dunno, I read range of reportage and analysis, including some you perhaps base yr view on (moa? duran?). Read/watch all w/grain of salt – fog of war and propaganda. All govts have reasons to lie about war. Dif reports/analyses mention and omit dif things. Honestly hard for me to gauge truth – my overall sense is deadlock, w/high casualties on both sides, govt lies on both sides…
…unless anti-war forces can mobilize emergent existing public opinion (which in many countries has shifted to favoring negotiation vs ‘the US’s weapons-only-anti-negotiation foreign policy), this looks like another’ forever war (not claiming originality here)
Everyone wants or predicts a ‘breakthrough’ or political collapse on one side or other forcing settlement…v the ghastly ‘endless’ war of attrition it looks like to me…
This is a joke, right? Someone please tell me this is a joke. 10,000 soldiers here, a battalion there … woohoo. Meanwhile thousands of soldiers are dying each and every week and the Russians haven’t even gotten going with their real weapons yet.
That’s the point. To get Russians to “get going”. The strategy is to escalate without engendering your home base. When there is much casualties and destruction, you can maintain a better bargaining position.
Are you implying when all of ones troops are dead, they can make the best deal. In which world is this?
No, I’m saying they are trying to piss off the Russians.
Yours are the words of a fish…..!!!!%
Why? Zelenski is respinsible for decidions that resulted in deaths of tens if thousands of people. His decisions are driven by optics, and all Western media describes it as pluckinesd or roaring success. Yet the only sucess Ukraine had was whenever Russia decided to shorten tge front line and correct the need to defend exposed flanks. Their appearance of success has been bolstered by Russia’s consolidation of areas under its control, and having no assurances of future respect for Russian or even Russian speaking Ukrainians, its basic rights to political representation and life — annexed areas under its control. Static front allows Russia to stabiluze living conditions in those areas, from food to nedical care.
Zemenski still does what works: defends indefensible in order to sppear strong. Take Balkmut battles. Ukraine is moving in thousands of new troups to be killed. Russia is not entering tge town giving Ukraine endless opportunities to bring more troups. It is tragic and criminal. There is no need tir dramatic gransdstsnding at the cost if bringing in thousands of more. people to die.
Biut then, Zelenski has shown his colors recently by attack and harrasing Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. 75% of people beling to Orthodox faith. Yet, Zelenski’s media company that propped him to fame decently broadcast insulting “comedy” attacking Christians.
He may hope for now to get approval from tge 20% Catholic population, but that will not last. He has lost territory and permanently, as his gamble did not pay off.
Bianca, You are the best example of a cultist.
Cultist? Wow, such terminology! You mean right up there with Manson, Jim Jones, Trump and Biden? I don’t think so.
Ukraine loses that many troops in three days.
Almost certainly. And it seems to be much worse than that in some engagements.
It’s ridiculous anyway. It’s also cruel and cynical. Nothing that can be done with green troops in a month of training is likely to do much more than make them more unjustifiably-confident targets.
One month of accelerated basic training teaching the needed skills is far better than the no training the Russian mobiliks are getting and can make a huge a different in the battlefield.
First, what you appear to think is happening on the battlefield is nothing like reality. In reality, Ukrainian forces are being ground down at a rate that is unsustainable, horrendous and utterly unjustifiable. The troops who are being sent in repeated waves to reinforce the allegedly unimportant defensive lives at Bakhmut in northern Donetsk, for instance, are being fed into a meat grinder. They are truly being used as cannon fodder. It’s disgraceful.
In Kherson, where the Kiev regime sacrificed large numbers of fighters in a series of failed counter-attacks, and then trumpeted in triumph when Russia withdrew its forces to shorter and more-defensible lines, Kiev’s troops are discovering that, e.g., Kherson City is not merely as difficult to defend as it was for the Russians, it’s effectively impossible. So the city is a ghost town and the few forces still there are so pinned down by artillery fire from across the river that they report having difficulty retrieving the bodies of fallen comrades.
It goes on and on.
We’ll see whether the cited training makes a meaningful difference in the progress of the war, but I don’t know any experts who aren’t apologists and cheerleaders for Ukraine and NATO who think it possibly can. Even if the individuals undergoing the training were somehow turned into competent soldiers, the numbers being trained couldn’t come close to keeping up with Ukrainian attrition via casualties.
Your parroting of the laughable claim that mobilized Russian reservists are untrained suggests that you know astonishingly little about the reality of the war you so confidently comment on here.
At the beginning of World War Two, the US Marine Corps cut its boot camp from eight weeks to four weeks of “accelerated basic training.” The result was poorly trained Marines with terrible marksmanship skills, so they almost immediately jacked it back up to eight weeks.
SINCE World War Two, basic training times have increased, not decreased. When I went to boot camp, it was 12 weeks long, and the training was dense and fast-paced. Now it’s 13 weeks long.
One month of “accelerated basic training” doesn’t produce soldiers, it produces targets who can’t defend themselves, let alone anything/anyone else.
Too late, too late.
Sounds like Vietnam redux.
We have been training them for a while. No secret that we have trainers in Ukraine too. Special ops personnel too. Sending lots and lots of money and weapons, which Ukraine will have to pay for in the form of vital services privatized after the war finally ends.
Since Antiwar won’t report this, I’ll help it.
Russia ‘massively’ attacks Ukraine in latest round of raids. (EARLY TODAY 16 Dec 2022).
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/16/russia-massively-attacks-ukraine-in-latest-round-of-strikes
Don’t worry, Don, it will stop soon. Russia must be just about out of missiles now, right?
This is what war is like. If you don’t like it you should be encouraging a negotiated settlement instead of cheering on the cannon fodder and pretending that your imaginary good guys can “win.”
I’m not encouraging any negotiations because I don’t have a platform for that and that isn’t my job. I do support the underdog in this War and that is Ukraine. I will cheer on Ukraine just like many folks here cheer on Russia, same folks you don’t seem to have an issue with.
And the imaginary good guys can actually win if by winning you mean retaking more significant amount of land, the same way they kicked your guys out of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson.
And stop pretending you care about Ukrainian soldiers, they aren’t cannon fodders, they are freedom fighters, motivated and with a will to fight for their land and families.
If you have elected representatives with telephones and email accounts, you have a platform. And it certainly is your job.
Few folks here “cheer on” Russia. Most who you think are doing that are actually just better informed about reality than the cheerleading denialists who imagine Ukraine could possibly achieve military victory. Also, of course, some of us understand the reality of relentless US-NATO provocation that makes that entity primarily responsible for the war in the first place.
The fact that you think the counteroffensives in Kharkov and Kherson achieved anything valuable enough to justify the costs is more evidence of fundamental misunderstanding. The fact that you think Russia was repulsed in a serious attempt to take Kiev just puts you in the company of a lot of people who should know better.
“If you have elected representatives with telephones and email accounts, you have a platform. And it certainly is your job.”
GTFOH with that BS. That is the dumbest thing I’ve read today. Really, GTFOH.
======
“Few folks here “cheer on” Russia. Most who you think are doing that are actually just better informed about reality than the cheerleading denialists who imagine Ukraine could possibly achieve military victory.”
How do you know these folks are better informed? Is it because you agree with them? That makes them better informed?
=====
“Also, of course, some of us understand the reality of relentless US-NATO provocation that makes that entity primarily responsible for the war in the first place.”
And Russia has zero to do with this war? They never abused and oppressed Ukraine over the last 30 years?
You absolutely believe Ukraine cannot win this war but I do.
“they aren’t cannon fodders, they are freedom fighters, motivated and with a will to fight for their land and families.”
And you’re a propaganda spewer.
Those Azovs are real heroes to you, aye?
Only war mongers and idiots oppose negotiations to end this war,
One step closer to Shock and Awe. Not quite a full out war, but moving steadily in that direction.
The statements ‘we shot down almost all their missiles’ (60 / 76) were inconsistent with their reports of how much damage was done.
It also makes me shudder at how much we destroyed in Iraqi cities 2 decades ago.
“The statements ‘we shot down almost all their missiles’ (60 / 76) were inconsistent with their reports of how much damage was done.”
Not necessarily. All that “shooting down a missile” really means is that the missile hits something other than the target.
For example, if you remember the 1991 Gulf War, 27 US reservists from Pennsylvania were killed when a Patriot missile “shot down” an Iraqi Scud, causing it to land on their barracks instead of on whatever its actual target was.
In order to know whether the reports here are consistent, one would need to know 1) what was targeted and 2) what was actually damaged.
Ahh thanks for the clarification.
They also did not report what Russians claim prompted this.
Contradicting the idea that Ukraine has a missile shortage:
new news from G. Doctorow, from last nights Russian, Evening with Vladimir Solovyov. there were also at least two or thre other golden nuggets about Syria and recent changes at the top of the Chinese leadership under Xi, all of which are pro-Russian and anti-Western:
“….Otherwise, the number one Ukrainian topic of the evening was the unprecedented Ukrainian rocket and artillery attack the day before on the provincial capital of Donetsk, which received more than 150 incoming missiles, many from US-provided launchers. None of the blasts was directed against military targets; all struck residential buildings, markets, social infrastructure buildings at morning hours when there would be a maximum of people in the targeted structures or open spaces.
Photos from the scene of destruction were put up on the screen and included images of the main cathedral of Donetsk, whose cupola was struck directly by one missile; this was held up as one more demonstration of the ‘satanic’ nature of the Kievan rulers, whose intent was clearly to traumatize the Donbas population.
There were more than a dozen deaths and a great many injured among the civilians from the latest Ukrainian barrage. The conclusion which Solovyov’s panelists reached from this reign of terror that has gone unreported by Western media is that it is high time to wreak destruction on the city of Kiev, not merely on its power generation, so as ‘to wipe the smile off the faces of the Ukrainian Nazi gang.’…..”
Do you have a link to the source with the pictures?
It is Russian propaganda. It is what they believe. It is also probably 100% true.
The truth or falseness of it is immaterial. The Ukrainians are still without power, their trains carrying NATO supplies and troops to the front lines are idle, USians mostly believe it is totally false, and Russians believe it to be true
As in US politics, everyone has their own version of the “truth”.
If it was 100% true then surely they would have provided the pictures to document it!?
I could not say if it was/is true or false just based on what the parties claim, but if we look at the effects, then if the trains carrying supplies and troops to the front lines were idle then surely we should expect the Russians to be able to advance at a somewhat increased pace from what they could muster before the power was cut?
What we are seeing does not support the idea that the Russians are as superior in firepower or that the Ukrainians are as powerless as your Russian propaganda implies, unless we are to assume that the Russians would waste this supposed opportunity to finally take Bakhmut while the Ukrainians are supposedly without adequate supplies of both arms and troops.
I see the Russians attacking quite fiercely on the Donetsk front, but I do not see the Ukrainians as substantially weakened – sure they are losing territory but the pace has not increased since about August – and had the power cuts limited supplies then it ought to have.
I haven’t yet found the video from the Solvyov show, but RT has a story up about the attacks on Donetsk City, complete with three videos. The damage to the cathedral is included:
https://www.rt.com/russia/568270-donetsk-worst-strike-ukraine/
First of all thanks for the reply!
having read the article there is some points to make, first of which is the initial claim was:
Whereas the article actually much more credibly states:
So the original claim:
1) was an exaggeration by a factor 375% (150 vs 40)
2) implied special intention (US launchers are precision missiles whereas Grad is not).
3) misses out on the chance that the grad missiles were fired by the Russians US missiles could not have been fired by the Russians
The reason I mention 3, while not expecting it to be the case, is that in at least one earlier case the supposed Ukrainian artillery fire came from a Russian battery in Russian held territory – a honest mistake or accident of worn barrels leading to shorter flight.
EDIT:
Also if I have found the right Cathedral and figured out the angle of the rocket impact then it came from the east (and possibly though not necesarily ever so slightly northern) direction:So I had not found the right Church and tracking down the right one clearly led to the conclusion that it was hit from the north west i.e. from the direction where it would have been hit by the UkrainiansEnd EDIT
Further the original claim was:
Whereas the article you link only claims that there was 6 people injured.
I doubt that either the RT reporters or the Solvyov panelists knew the number of missiles or rockets (different weapons) with precision. I wouldn’t be surprised if panelists either exaggerated or were repeating information they received from others who did. RT, on the other hand, has been consistently cautious in its reports on the war and is careful to attribute claims that appear in its articles, as it does here. I suppose the Donetsk City mayor could be exaggerating, but I doubt that even he knew immediately how many rockets struck sites in the city. Most likely, no one really knew in the immediate aftermath and the numbers reported even by responsible journalists are estimates.
All of that said, I have no trouble believing that the attack on the city was “the worst shelling in eight years.” The residents and officials in Donetsk are more than adequately expert on the subject to make that determination, sadly.
If officials and otherwise experience observers in Donetsk are reporting only Grads and conventional artillery, it is indeed very unlikely that anything identifiably associated with US-made launchers was found.
Grads are everywhere, definitely including Russia, but I’m confident that Russian or allied forces had nothing to do with this incident. Accidents do happen, but Donetsk City is at the top of the list of places Russia and LDPR forces would never want to strike.
This sounds entirely plausible – it does however lower the credibility of a source that reports such news without fact checking it.
I do not have any serious criticism of the RT article you provided a link to.
Quite – however reporting 150 when there were 40 and reporting them as high precision US made ones puts an entirely different spin on the story.
If that is the case (and I would be happy if it is) the with all of only 6 people hurt I can only conclude that it reflects the line I have been reporting, i.e. that the majority of civilian casualties were in the very early part of the conflict in the Donbas and that very few people were hurt/killed between 2015 and 2021.
Agreed.
I do not know if you have seen it, but I have edited my comment – upon closer inspection I found the right Cathedral and could fairly easily conclude that whatever hit it came from north north-west so that would make the Russians a very unlikely source as they would have to target their ‘own’ and it could not have happened by accident.
Vladimir Solovyov Lol. That is sick man.
The Russian MOD is disarming NATO (Ukraine was disarmed in March), tank by tank, artillery by artillery, air defense by air defense. What they loose in the Ukraine, they loose for the final NATO war against Russia. A war the US/NATO is loosing.
NATO overall has accumulated the following equipment losses;
344 Aircraft, 184 helicopters, 2673 UAV’s, 396 Anti Aircraft systems, 7134 tanks inc. APC’s, 931 multiple rocket launchers, 3689 rocket launchers and 7625 military automotive equipment.
NATO has not accumulated these losses – these are if true the losses that the Ukrainians have incurred – several points shows how wrong you are if you believe in this propaganda:
1) an APC (armored personnel carrier is not a tank and should therefore not appear as an item Tanks inc. APC”s.
2) No NATO (i.e. western made tanks have been transferred to Ukraine only old Soviet ones
3) No NATO (i.e. western made aircraft have been transferred to Ukraine old Soviet ones are being considered
If you want a more reliable assessment of what has actually ben confirmed as destroyed I suggest you visit Oryx
Given that Ukraine’s air force had 196 aircrafts all together in late 2021 and has not had any transferred how do you explain the claim of 344?
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/32040-fact-check-has-russia-destroyed-the-ukrainian-air-force
“A war the US/NATO is loosing.”
They need to tighten up, declare marshal law };-)>
The Pentagon is planning a major expansion of the number of Ukrainian troops that it will train in Germany.
Yeah, I hear they’re naming the training camps alphabetically
Kamp Azoz
Kamp Bandera
Camp C.I.A.
Kamp Donetsk
Kamp Einsatzgruppen
The ADL issues statement declaring Ukraine’s Azov Battalion no longer ‘far-right’ again. Even the source below denounces this absurdity. https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/08/adl-ukraines-azov-battalion-far-right/
https://www.israel365news.com/352294/adl-defends-ukraines-nazis/
If and when the Russians are gone, the neo-Nazi brigades there are planning something very bad for another group, and our stolen wages will train them to act out their hatreds and ethnic cleansing agenda.
The ADL Issues Statement Declaring Ukraine’s Azov Battalion No Longer ‘Far-Right’. https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/08/adl-ukraines-azov-battalion-far-right/
Again, the ADL defends those who will eventually seek to persecute Jews if and when the Russians are gone. Even Jewish media denounces the American ADL. https://www.israel365news.com/352294/adl-defends-ukraines-nazis/
How much of our tax money was given to the ADL to make such an absurd statement?
cmon in the fishing is fine….
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/29fd9f7d22b0ab5f5203b17dede29706ce38787e332734326d652404f38e8f9d.jpg
They did the same in Vietnam / Afghanistan , it didn`t help their puppets win did it .