The Pentagon intends to provide training to Ukrainian soldiers so they use the howitzers and radars contained in the latest batch of weapons and equipment President Joe Biden ordered sent to Kiev, the US military said on Monday. The training will reportedly take place in another country.
Last week, the US announced it would send $800 million worth of weapons to Kiev. In addition to anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, this batch includes armored vehicles, artillery pieces, and tactical radars, for which the Ukrainians would need training.
The Pentagon is planning to teach Ukrainian trainers how to use the new weapons sometime in the coming days in an unspecified third country, an anonymous US defense official told reporters on Monday. This way, the Ukrainians would train their colleagues on how to use the US weapons, while Washington would avoid having “boots on the ground” in Ukraine itself.
Earlier, the Pentagon revealed that some of the Ukrainian troops in the US were trained in using the Switchblade kamikaze drones, 300 of which were included in the new shipment of weapons.
Among the weapons announced by the Biden administration last week were 500 more Javelin anti-tank missiles, 500 more Stinger anti-air missiles, 10 counter-artillery radars, two air surveillance radars, 200 of the M113 armored personnel carriers, 100 Humvee armored cars, and 18 towed 155mm howitzers, along with some 40,000 rounds of ammunition.