Soldiers stationed on NATO’s eastern flank will begin training Ukrainian soldiers in the use of M777 howitzers “in the coming days,” the Pentagon said on Monday.
The first shipments of the new tranche of US military aid to Ukraine have already arrived at the country’s borders to be handed over to the Ukrainian army, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“Four flights arrived in the region yesterday from the United States, with different equipment,” said a senior US Defense Department official, who asked not to be identified.
A fifth flight is expected to arrive in the next 24 hours, “which will make five flights in as many days,” as the new $800 million tranche of military aid to Ukraine was announced Wednesday by President Joe Biden, he pointed out thereupon.
Ukrainian military training
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the first shipment arrived 48 hours after the executive order authorizing the arms shipments was signed, an “unprecedented” speed.
The spokesman indicated that soldiers stationed on NATO’s eastern flank since the Russian invasion began “in the coming days” will begin training Ukrainian soldiers in the use of M777 howitzers, the latest generation of artillery pieces that the United States have decided to hand themselves over to the Ukrainian army for the first time.
“These trainings will take place outside of Ukraine,” he stressed. “A small number of Ukrainians are trained in howitzers and then sent back to their country to train their peers,” he explained.
Although their handling is not fundamentally different from the artillery with which the Ukrainian army is familiar, these guns use 155mm shells used by NATO countries, while Ukraine does not yet have Russian-made 152mm shells Has.