Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told reporters on Sunday that the US has begun its expanded training program of Ukrainian soldiers in Germany, representing Washington’s ever-growing involvement in the war.
On Monday, Milley visited Ukrainian troops being trained by Americans in Grafenwoehr, Germany, sending a message of how important the training program is to Washington.
Up to this point, US training of Ukrainians has focused on specific weapons systems, but the new program is being called “combined arms” training. The Ukrainians will be taught how to coordinate battalion-sized forces using combined artillery, armored units, and ground troops. Ukrainian forces have been undergoing similar training in Britain.
Milley said the initial goal is to train a battalion of about 500 troops and get them back on the battlefield in about six to eight weeks. He also said that the US hopes to deliver new weapons and equipment to Ukraine in time for them to use it “sometime before the spring rains show up. That would be ideal.”
Milley said the US was doing a similar type of training for Ukrainian forces inside Ukraine before Russia’s invasion. The US withdrew troops that were in Ukraine before the invasion, although the Pentagon said in October that US military personnel based at the US embassy in Kyiv began “onsite” weapons inspections in the country.
The Intercept reported in October that US special operations forces and CIA operatives are on the ground in Ukraine, but the Pentagon hasn’t confirmed the covert presence.
The Pentagon is also set to begin training Ukrainian troops on the Patriot air defense missile systems, which is set to take place inside the US at a base in Oklahoma. Since Russia invaded, the only known US training of Ukrainian forces on specific weapons systems has taken place in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Why is Joe beating around the bush? He should just gather congress, put forth that congress should declare war, and be done with it. A few nukes over 48 hours and it will all be over. Voila’.
Careful what you wish for. these people are not right in the head.
Agree, V….that’s where we’re headed any old way. Just get it the f*ck over with.
It all starts with “training”…
In Afghanistan, it ended with us leaving on hurried and packed evacuation flights after trillions wasted and millions of bodies and handing the country right back to the Taliban (except this time they have all of our weapons and humvees we left for them…)
Can we please not get entangled in foreign wars? We are so bad at it.
Why? they get rich. It’s all that matters. /s
probably all the stuff that uncle sam left behind was outdated junk and needed to be replaced at a high cost
I’m persistently struck by how overtly piddling the US efforts are, except for the dollar amounts of course. I guess the idea is that people see words like “troops” and “tanks” and “HIMARS” and that creates the right image, and apparently most people don’t or can’t grasp that the numbers mentioned are quite trivial, for instance the chairman of the JCS talking about hopefully hustling 500 soldiers off to Ukraine in 6-8 weeks is laughable. The Ukrainians have probably lost more than that in a single day.
And all 500 of them will be faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a steam locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings with a single bound.
Why oh WHY do we have warmongers instead of peace-seekers running this godforsaken country?
Never mind, I KNOW why, the question was just rhetorical.