The Pentagon is considering the possibility of training the Ukrainian military on Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems at a military base in the United States.
This was reported to Politico by two officials of the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Pentagon believes that it will take several months to train the Ukrainians. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that discussions are ongoing in the U.S. Department of Defense whether to conduct all or part of these exercises in the United States.
According to one of the officials, most likely, training will be held at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where most of the instructors and simulators are located. Training in Europe is also possible, but, as the American official noted, it is associated with greater material and technical difficulties.
Politico journalists assume that the Patriot system will not enter the battlefield in Ukraine for many months. Another U.S. Defense Ministry official said on December 21 that the Americans will not hand it over until the Ukrainians finally learn how to use it.
The U.S. President Joe Biden on December 21 dismissed the idea that sending Patriot systems could escalate the situation on the battlefield, saying it was a defense system that would be used to shoot down Russian missiles that attack Ukrainian infrastructure and leave millions of people without power.
"This is not escalation, this is defense," Biden noted.
- On December 21, the United States announced a new military aid package for Ukraine, which will include a battery of Patriot air defense systems.
- The Air Force spokesman Yurii Ignat also informed that the Ukrainian military can master the Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems within a few months.