![]() ![]() ![]() It’s his goal to delay this for as long as possible, for many reasons,” McCaul argued, cautioning that “the sooner we can bring this to a closing the better, as we look at the will of the American people and the Congress.” In addition, another 890 Ukrainian troops will begin training on Stryker fighting vehicles next week. The troops will train on the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle and the M109 Paladin, a self-propelled howitzer that the US recently announced it will send to Ukraine. ![]() The transition to battalion-level training marked a significant expansion of the US effort to train and prepare Ukrainians for a long-term war.Ī second group of 710 Ukrainian forces has already begun training at Grafenwoehr, Ryder said. Previously, the US had offered smaller-scale training on individual weapons systems, such as HIMARS rocket launchers. More on the training: The training began in mid-January, part of an expanded US program to prepare Ukrainian forces to fight. The Ukrainian battalion also trained on the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Pat Ryder, where the US conducts its own combined arms and maneuver training. The first group of 635 Ukrainians wrapped up the course at Grafenwoehr Training Area, according to a statement from Pentagon press secretary Brig. A second group is already underway in the five-week course that will teach the troops maneuver, medical and basic soldier training. The first group of Ukrainian soldiers completed training at a United States base in Germany, the Pentagon said. In the context of the war today, the Russian-backed separatist enclave at the southwestern edge of the country could now present a potential bookend to any Russian assault westwards from Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. This supposed “peacekeeping” presence, which has in practice seen the Kremlin prop up a puppet state that seeks to undermine Moldova’s sovereignty, has also mirrored Moscow’s pretext for invasions in Georgia and Ukraine.Īlarm bells in Moldova and the West grew louder following familiar refrains from the Kremlin that the rights of ethnic Russians were being violated in Transnistria – another argument used by Putin to justify his February 2022 invasion of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, which contained two breakaway Russian-backed statelets. When Moldova became independent the following year, Russia quickly inserted itself as a so-called “peacekeeping force” in Transnistria, sending troops in to back pro-Moscow separatists there. The territory declared itself a Soviet republic in 1990, opposing any attempt by Moldova to become an independent state or to merge with Romania. ![]() When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, a handful of “frozen conflict” zones in eastern Europe emerged, including a slither of land along Moldova’s border with Ukraine known as Transnistria. Why Moldova is important: Moldova, situated between Ukraine and Romania, was previously part of the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Sandu described 2022 as an “incredibly difficult year for Moldova” and thanked the US for its support with its myriad challenges, including with energy, the economy and security. “We stand strongly with Moldova in support of its security, its independence, its territorial integrity, the very important reform efforts that the president and the government are making." “We have deep concern about some of the plotting that we’ve seen coming from Russia to try to destabilize the government,” Blinken said at a meeting with Sandu in Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. This comes as Moldova President Maia Sandu said earlier this week that Russia was plotting a coup in Moldova. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the US has “deep concern” about Russia's efforts to destabilize the government of Moldova. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a bilateral meeting with Moldovan President Maia Sandu during the Munich Security Conference on February 17. ![]()
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