Pentagon trained over 23,000 Ukrainian soldiers since 2015: US Gen.

• 

The United States has trained more than 23,000 Ukrainian soldiers between 2015 and January 2022, US Brigadier General Joseph Hilbert revealed on Wednesday, reflecting Washington's long-existing attempts at swaying the region in its direction.

"Since the beginning of [the Joint Multinational Training Group Ukraine] up until January 2022, we have trained a total of 23,000 plus armed forces of Ukraine soldiers from 17 Different battalions and 11 different brigades," he said.

Hilbert also revealed that they participated in training in Ukraine at the Combat Training Center Yavoriv.

He underlined that the Pentagon invested some $126 million into training Ukrainian military personnel since the beginning of the aforementioned mission in 2015.

The United States is currently training the second group of about 50 Ukrainian military trainers on how to operate howitzers, radars, and armored vehicles sent from Washington to Kiev as the war unfolds in Ukraine.

The training sessions are taking place in several locations outside of Ukraine.

British SAS troops have trained Ukrainian forces for the first time since the start of the war, Ukrainian commanders told The Times in mid-April.

Instructors from the UK were previously withdrawn from the country in February when NATO member states were expecting a Russian attack. The British now returned to teach locals how to use NLAWs, UK-supplied shoulder-fired anti-tank missile launchers, the paper wrote, citing Captain Yury Myronenko and two other Ukrainian commanders, identified only by their nicknames.

The units which received the training are stationed around Kiev, reports said.

London has been one of Kiev’s primary arms suppliers, sending weapons ranging from anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems to armored vehicles. Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Kiev last week, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and promised more support.

Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, had also warned that the influx of Western arms to the conflict zone in Ukraine was adding fuel to the fire.

The US government has provided Ukraine with $2.3 billion in security assistance since President Joe Biden took office last January, including thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems, and lately, the European Union has agreed to send $500 million worth of arms and equipment to Kiev, and Ukraine nonetheless still urged the West to boost its military capabilities.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had previously said tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers currently fighting against the Russian forces in Ukraine have been trained at the hands of the alliance.

NATO training Ukrainian soldiers is a reflection of the alliance's eastward expansion, which Russia is trying to curb through its operation in Ukraine that has been ongoing for over a month now.

"We have to remember that NATO allies, like the United States, but also the United Kingdom and Canada and some others... they have trained Ukrainian troops for years," he revealed.