6 months ago
48
Nato
allies are inching closer to sending troops into
Ukraine
to train Ukrainian
forces
, a move that would be another blurring of a previous red line and could draw the US and Europe more directly into the war.
Ukraine's manpower shortage has reached a critical point, and its position on the battlefield in recent weeks has seriously worsened as Russia has accelerated its advances to take advantage of delays in shipments of US weapons.
As a result, Ukrainian officials have asked their US and Nato counterparts to help train 150,000 new recruits closer to the front line for faster deployment. So far, the US has said no, but General Charles Brown Jr, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that a Nato deployment of
trainers
appeared inevitable. "We'll get there eventually, over time," he said.
For now, he said, an effort inside Ukraine would put "a bunch of Nato trainers at risk" and would most likely mean deciding whether to use precious air defences to protect the trainers instead of critical Ukrainian infrastructure near the battlefield. Brown briefed reporters on his plane en route to a Nato meeting in Brussels.
As a part of Nato, the US would be obligated under the alliance's treaty to aid in the defence of any attack on the trainers, potentially dragging America into the war. The White House has been adamant that it will not put US troops, including trainers, on the ground in Ukraine, a position that an administration official reiterated Thursday. The administration has also urged Nato allies not to send its troops.
But in Feb, Prez Emmanuel Macron of France said that "nothing should be ruled out" when it comes to sending Western troops to Ukraine. Macron has doubled down on his comment since, including after senior American diplomats asked him to stop.
The govt of Estonia has not ruled out the possibility of sending troops to western Ukraine to take over rear roles that could free Ukrainian troops to go to the front, Estonia's national security adviser said this week. Lithuania's foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, too backed Macron's stance in an interview with the 'The Guardian' last week.
The US military has done training for Ukrainian troops in Poland, Germany and the US, but pulling troops out of Ukraine is time-consuming. US officials now acknowledge the current training by Ukrainian forces is not sufficient and that they need better and faster training to push back on Russian drive this summer.
