U.S. Troops to Train Ukrainian Soldiers

The United States is stepping up its involvement in the conflict in Ukraine by saying that it will train members of the regular Ukrainian army, an expansion of its previous training efforts that were focused on Ukrainian national guard units.

Reuters reports that the training mission was requested by the Ukrainian government and it brings the total value of aid to Ukraine in its civil war against Russian backed separatists and Russian troops to $244 million.

The training will begin in late fall, at camps and facilities near the Polish border in Ukraine's west and will be similar to the training that national guard forces have already been receiving from U.S. personnel.

The focus of the training would be on combat tactics and medicine, particularly for regular army troops and special forces operators. In announcing the decision to expand the training mission, the United States emphasized that it did not mean the Ukrainian military would receive lethal aid like ammunition and weaponry.

U.S. support to the Ukrainian military has been limited to non-lethal aid like meals ready to eat, radar, uniforms, helmets, and bulletproof vests. Ukraine has long sought advanced U.S. weaponry to increase its fighting capabilities, but Russia has said that such a decision would be a major provocation in the conflict that has already claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands.

The conflict in Ukraine is currently at a stalemate as both sides simultaneously honor and violate  a ceasefire orchestrated by France and Germany called the Minsk Accords. While the agreement has not brought any lasting peace, it has lowered the intensity of the conflict that erupted after the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014 and subsequent annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russian forces.