On Tuesday, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that in the next month Britain would deploy military personnel to Ukraine to help train the Ukrainian army, warning that Moscow would move to destabilize other countries if left unchallenged.
“Over the course of the next month we’re going to be deploying British service personnel to provide advice and a range of training, to tactical intelligence to logistics, to medical care,” Cameron told a committee of lawmakers in parliament.
“We’ll also be developing an infantry training program with Ukraine to improve the durability of their forces.”
According to Business Insider, the deployment of British service personnel to Ukraine would follow the proposed deployment of US trainers to western Ukraine this spring. Four companies of the Ukrainian National Guard will be trained by a still undetermined number of American soldiers close to the city of Lviv, near the Polish border.
In September of 2014, the US deployed 200 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team to Ukraine as a part of the joint military exercise Rapid Trident. Soldiers from 14 different countries were involved in the NATO training exercise along with NATO representatives.
Although Germany and France continue to insist that any military intervention would make the situation in Ukraine worse, the AP reports that Obama is increasingly considering sending military aid to Ukraine to help the military stave off any future assaults by Russian-backed separatists.
The fractured opinions in Europe and within NATO towards how to best deal with Russia’s continued aggression is demonstrated by Britain’s decision to take a more direct approach towards the Ukraine crisis.
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko is currently attending a major military expo in Abu Dhabi with the intent of procuring additional weaponry for his country’s fight against Russian-backed separatists.
Company faces federal charges for illegal military equipment deals with China
One Female Soldier passes pre-Ranger course