The Pentagon is working to form a new command to coordinate Ukraine’s armament and training, according to two US officials, in an effort to streamline the largely ad hoc process that had quickly emerged in the wake of the Russian invasion.
The new command, which will be based in Weisbaden in Germany, will come under General Christopher Cavoli, the commander of the US European Command, which has led the multinational effort to train Ukrainian armed forces on advanced Western weapons and to deploy those weapons. deliver to the border with Ukraine, an official said. It is expected to be headed by a three-star general.
But the US has been cautious in discussing the plan, which officials say isn’t a major change to the current system for organizing and managing shipments. Officials are careful not to give Putin a reason to claim that the US is a party to the conflict, especially given the lofty rhetoric from the Kremlin about the threat of the use of nuclear weapons.
DailyExpertNews was the first to report on the new command.
The Biden administration has openly expressed its continued and long-standing support for Ukraine. Since the start of the Russian invasion in late February, the US has pledged more than $16 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. This week, the Pentagon announced an additional $1.1 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine, which a senior defense official called a “multi-year investment” in the country’s defenses.
Since the early weeks of the war, the US has been looking for ways to quickly and effectively convert Ukrainian requests for various types of equipment into arms shipments, making a process that normally takes weeks or more a matter of days.
As Ukrainian forces proved they could resist the Russian invasion, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hopes of a quick victory turned into a devastating war, the number of countries willing to provide security assistance to Ukraine grew.
The US and its allies and partners have established the Ukraine Contact Group, made up of more than 40 countries that meet monthly, to coordinate shipments of arms and equipment to Ukraine.
The new command will create a more formal structure within the military to manage the shipments, officials said. Its anticipated location in central Germany also places it close to many of the areas used by western countries to train Ukrainian troops.
The command would also work closely with the International Donor Coordination Center, which has played a critical role in handling the logistics needed to match Ukraine’s arms needs with the available stockpiles of potential donor countries.
