Washington: The Pentagon is setting up a new command dedicated to helping Ukraine win its war against Russia. It will oversee not only the billions of dollars in aid that the country has received, but the ongoing US training mission with Ukrainian troops, said an announcement.
The 300-strong Security Assistance Group-Ukraine will take over the job that the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters recently turned over in Germany, the Defence Department’s policy chief told reporters.
While he wouldn’t call it a “permanent” command, Colin Kahl said, it signals a transition to a more “enduring capability” beyond the crisis response model from the XVIII Airborne Corps.
“We had a training mission with Ukraine before the war, right? So, the commitment to Ukraine is not new,” he said. “So, really, we just see this as a continuation of what we’ve been doing with the Ukrainians since 2014. It got dialled up as a consequence of Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine back in February, but, really, it’s kind of just institutionalizing what we’ve been doing since then.”
Kahl declined to say whether a three-star general would be appointed to lead the command, a move the New York Times reported, but the mission had previously been overseen by a three-star, Lt. Gen. Christopher Donaghue, the corps’ commander.
