Pentagon eyes major expansion of Ukraine military training

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other top Pentagon officials are weighing a major expansion in training for the Ukrainian military, reported from The Washington Post. 

The plan, under discussion for weeks, according to senior US defense officials, would build on the billions of dollars in weaponry and other aid Washington has provided Ukraine by showing its military how to wage a more sophisticated campaign against the struggling Russian army.

It would see Ukrainian combat units with hundreds, or possibly even thousands of troops, training together in Grafenwoehr, Germany, where the US military has instructed Ukrainian forces in smaller numbers for years. 

Austin is keen to boost Ukraine’s ability to maneuver on the battlefield with a more modern style of warfare that relies less on launching thousands of rounds of artillery per day at Russian troops in what has become a grinding, bloody war of attrition.

Austin is known to favor the significantly expanded US training program, along with similar programs for tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers to be undertaken by Britain, European Union countries and others such as Norway. Germany alone plans to train 5,000 troops by June under the EU initiative, at German military combat simulation centers and battalion command posts.





www.anews.az