WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is expanding the training the U.S. military provides to Ukrainian troops, with plans to more than double the number of forces it directs at a base in Germany, according to two U.S. officials. Ky.
The expanded training course, which officials said President Biden approved this week, will allow American trainers to train one Ukrainian battalion — about 600 to 800 troops — each, officials said. months, starting early next year, officials said.
That’s a huge increase in the total number of Ukrainians the United States trains outside of the country — now averaging about 300 troops a month — in addition to improving the training they will receive. Since the war began in February, the United States has trained 3,100 Ukrainian soldiers, mostly in small groups, in specific weapons such as artillery systems, according to Defense Department statistics.
The Pentagon has trained 610 Ukrainian troops to use the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, an advanced rocket launcher. The Ukrainian military used the launchers to devastating effect, hitting targets far behind the front lines, including ammunition depots, command posts and bridges.
Under the expanded program, American trainers will instruct larger groups of Ukrainian troops in more advanced battlefield tactics, including “collective training,” such as coordinating military drills. ground troops with artillery support. CNN last month’s report that the Biden administration is considering expanding the training.
The new training regime will take place at a US Army base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, where the Pentagon conducts its own combined weapons training. The base is also the headquarters of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have been wary of withdrawing too many troops from the front lines at any given time to train specialized weapons. But with winter slowing the pace of fighting in many parts of the war zone, officials say the coming months will present an opportunity.
Military officials said the training, which expanded in many aspects, was intended to continue the instruction given by the Special Forces and National Guard trainers, along with instructors from the various U.S. National Guard and Special Forces instructors. other NATO countries, regularly supplying Ukrainian troops before the war began.
Between 2015 and early this year, US military trainers trained more than 27,000 Ukrainian troops at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center in western Ukraine, near the city of Lviv, Pentagon officials said. The United States withdrew 150 military trainers before the war began.
Months after the war began, the United States and other Western countries began training Ukrainian forces in Germany and Poland.
In addition, he started a program that provides military training in the UK up to 10,000 recruits and employees of the Ukrainian Army, an effort to help strengthen local resistance to the Russian invasion. The initiative, announced in June by Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the time, began with more than 1,000 British soldiers from the 11th Security Forces Support Brigade, which specializes in foreign training.
Other countries, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, joined after Britain asked for help.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Britain’s defense secretary, said on Wednesday that the initial goal of training 10,000 Ukrainian recruits had almost been achieved. “This is very important,” he said in a speech in London.
