Pentagon plans to set up new command to arm Ukraine, officials say


WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is preparing to review how the United States and its allies train and equip Ukraine’s military, reflecting what officials say is the Biden administration’s long-term commitment to supporting Ukraine in his war with Russia.

The proposal would streamline a training and support system that was created on the fly after the Russian invasion in February. The system would be placed under a new single command based in Germany that would be led by a senior US general, according to several military and administrative officials.

Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the top US military officer in Europe, recently submitted a proposal outlining changes to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, officials said. Mr. Austin and his top aides are reviewing the plan and are expected to make a final decision in the coming weeks, senior U.S. officials said, adding that the White House and the Pentagon were supportive of the approach. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe confidential discussions.

Just as the Pentagon has committed more than $16 billion in military aid to Ukraine – a combination of immediate shipments from stock as well as contracts for weapons to be delivered over the next three years – the new command signals that the United States expects Russia’s threat to Ukraine and its neighbors to persist for many years, current and former senior U.S. officials have said.

“This recognizes the reality of the important security assistance mission of our Ukrainian partners,” said Admiral James G. Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe. “It will also create a formal security structure that our allies and partners can adhere to to put their equipment and training in Ukrainian hands.”

Gen. David H. Petraeus, a former top US commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, agreed. “It would be a very important and very appropriate initiative,” he said, “given the scale of the American effort and the contributions of our NATO allies.”

The new command, which would report to General Cavoli, would carry out decisions made by the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of 40 countries that the Ministry of Defense created after the Russian invasion to meet the needs and demands of the Ukraine. Senior military officials from member countries met in Brussels this week.

About 300 people would be dedicated to the mission, which would be located in Wiesbaden, Germany, the headquarters of the American army in Europe. Much of the training of Ukrainian soldiers on US weapons systems already takes place there or nearby.

The changes, which seek to give formal structure to what has been improvised since the start of the war, are roughly modeled on US training and assistance efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past two decades.

The proposal originated this year with General Tod D. Wolters, General Cavoli’s predecessor, and was refined after General Cavoli assumed command in July.

Lt. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, who commanded the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan in August 2021, has coordinated much of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine from behind the scenes for the past few months.

From his forward headquarters in Wiesbaden, General Donahue, a former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division who now leads the army’s 18th Airborne Corps, helped oversee the training, speaking to Ukrainian generals about their battlefield needs and relying on his special operations experience to advise his Ukrainian counterparts.

But General Donahue and his staff, who have been deployed in Poland and Germany since the early days of the war, are expected to return to their main headquarters at Fort Bragg, North Carolina next month, officials said. Ministry of Defense officials.

The Pentagon would therefore need someone else to lead the more formal command structure.

Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, declined to discuss the proposal, but added in an email: “We are continuously evaluating and refining our posture and internal processes to ensure that we provide Ukraine relevant and timely security assistance to meet its most urgent battlefield needs and to build its enduring strength to deter future Russian aggression.

US officials have not publicly discussed the proposal, in part because Pentagon officials are still sorting out the plan, but also to avoid fueling Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s narrative that his country is at war with the United States and NATO, not Ukraine. .

Still, the Pentagon has taken steps to begin the expected consolidation of training and equipment tasks. Over the summer, a cell of logistics specialists that matches Ukraine’s requests with military donations from more than 40 countries moved to Wiesbaden from Stuttgart, Germany.

The little-known group – officially called the International Donor Coordination Center, with officers from more than two dozen countries – plays a pivotal role in supporting Ukraine’s military as its battlefield needs grow more complicated .

The Pentagon said Wednesday it would send an additional $1.1 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine, including 18 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Launchers, or HIMARS. But unlike the 16 HIMARS the military rushed to Ukraine from stockpiles over the summer, these new weapons will be ordered from the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, and will take “a few years” to deliver, it said. a senior Defense Ministry official told reporters.

Ukrainian and US officials say the Pentagon’s now weekly or bi-weekly announcements of new arms and ammunition shipments from US stockpiles have given senior commanders in Kyiv the confidence to plan complex simultaneous offensives, like those of the Kherson region in the south and Kharkiv region in the northeast. .

Ukrainian soldiers are temporarily withdrawn from the battlefield to learn how to use American and Western weapons systems. About 2,000 Ukrainians have been trained on US artillery and drones so far, Pentagon officials say.

Wiesbaden is said to be the location for US-led training and assistance, but other Western countries are training Ukrainian soldiers elsewhere. Britain, for example, launched a program over the summer to train up to 10,000 Ukrainian recruits in weaponry, patrol tactics, first aid and other skills at British bases. . Denmark announced this month that it would launch a similar program for Ukrainian recruits.

Shortly after the first Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014, the United States and several other Western countries established training centers in western Ukraine. Special operations forces trained thousands of Ukrainians before the latest conflict ended the instructions.

With no US troops currently in Ukraine, providing assistance by phone or computer has been difficult, US officers say.

“It is now much more difficult to communicate with our allies and partners,” Major General Steven G. Edwards, head of US special operations forces in Europe, said at a security forum this month. . “Teleconferencing is good, but it’s not at all the same as before.”

The proposed command would oversee formal training at training fields in Germany as well as technical support centers that have been set up in neighboring countries.

A 50-member military repair team at a base in Poland, for example, provided technical assistance to Ukrainian soldiers on how to repair damaged US-supplied weapons, including M777 howitzers. Ukrainian manufacturers have gone a step further by finding out how to reverse engineer spare parts.

Since the program began in June, more than a dozen teleconference channels have been set up with more than 100 Ukrainian contacts, military officials said.

“It’s the proverbial David and Goliath scenario, isn’t it?” Command Master Chief Peter C. Musselman, the senior special operations soldier enlisted in Europe, said during the security forum. “And David is doing pretty well right now.”