The US administration has no plans of sending military instructors or troops to Ukraine, US White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday.
“As we’ve said several times on the record, we’re not planning to send US military advisors or troops trainers to train Ukraine, train unions in Ukraine,” he said on his way on board of Air Force One heading to France, where he intended to take part in the events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landing.
“In Germany, it has trained [some] 1,000 of Ukrainian soldiers on Western made equipment,” he said. “We stand ready to continue and in fact, expand that training”
“We have communicated that directly, and all of the training that we do is very closely coordinated with our allies and partners, many of whom have also conducted extensive training of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine, and will continue to do so,” the White House official stated.
“We’ll have the opportunity to speak with the French president and the French team on the ground about what they are thinking, and obviously I’m not going to get out. They make I’ll just say that for our part, we’re not planning for a training mission in Ukraine,” Sullivan added.
Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on June 4 commented on the Washington Post article about France’s plans to send military instructors to Ukraine as saying: “The thing is that all instructors who train Ukrainian troops have no immunity [from Russian attacks against them], whether they are French or not.”
Reuters reported earlier, citing diplomatic sources, that France may send its military instructors to Ukraine as early as this week, despite the risk of a direct clash with Russia. According to the news agency, Paris may send a limited number of instructors in the initial stage, and then plans to increase it to several hundred. Reuters also said that this mission will not operate under the auspices of the EU or NATO.
France hosts D-Day invasion events
Solemn ceremonies commemorating the D-Day landing in Normandy in June 1944 are scheduled to be held in Normandy and Brittany between June 6 and 8.
The largest event will be held at Omaha Beach on June 6 and will be attended by 25 heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden and UK King Charles III. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has also been invited.
In late April, US President Joe Biden signed a package of bills approved by the US Congress to resume arms deliveries to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The package was worth 95 billion dollars. It includes 61 billion dollars for Kiev.
Immediately after the head of state signed these bills, the Pentagon announced that it would send Ukraine arms and equipment worth one billion dollars. Washington then allocated the next batch of weapons worth 400 million dollars to Kiev.
Source: TASS
