Long-term assistance command to oversee training mission with Ukraine - Military Times

The Pentagon is lasting up a new bid devoted to helping Ukraine triumph its warfare against Russia. It volition oversee not lone the billions of dollars successful assistance that the state has received, but the ongoing U.S. grooming ngo with Ukrainian troops, according to the announcement Friday.

The 300-person Security Assistance Group-Ukraine volition instrumentality implicit the occupation that the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters precocious turned implicit successful Germany, the Defense Department’s argumentation chief told reporters Tuesday astatine a Defense Writers Group event.

While helium wouldn’t telephone it a “permanent” command, Colin Kahl said, it signals a modulation to a much “enduring capability” beyond the situation effect exemplary from the XVIII Airborne Corps.

“We had a grooming ngo with Ukraine earlier the war, right? So, the committedness to Ukraine is not new,” helium said. “So, really, we conscionable spot this arsenic a continuation of what we’ve been doing with the Ukrainians since 2014. It got dialed up arsenic a effect of Russia’s further penetration of Ukraine backmost successful February, but, really, it’s benignant of conscionable institutionalizing what we’ve been doing since then.”

Kahl declined to accidental whether a three-star wide would beryllium appointed to pb the command, a determination the New York Times reported Friday, but the ngo had antecedently been overseen by a three-star, Lt. Gen. Christopher Donaghue, the corps’ commander.

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The SAG-U would correspond the Pentagon’s archetypal determination to make much semipermanent unit operation successful Europe since Russia’s penetration earlier this year. Senior officials person publically discussed the perchance of much permanently based troops, oregon much heel-to-toe unit rotations, but without hinting astatine immoderate impending announcements.

The U.S. military’s footprint successful Europe has swelled from 80,000 to 100,000 since February, erstwhile the archetypal of tens of thousands of troops were mobilized to NATO countries for reassurance missions.

Since then, troops person been grooming with section forces and helping coordinate the transport of assistance to Ukraine, oregon grooming Ukrainian troops extracurricular of their country, a ngo that the SAG-U signals volition continue.

Whether that means this surge of Europe deployments volition besides proceed is up successful the air.

“So, close now, the intent is to support unit levels astatine the aforesaid level arsenic they’ve been,” a elder subject authoritative told Military Times during a inheritance briefing Oct. 31. “We person nary announcements to marque successful presumption of immoderate changes to that successful the adjacent term.”