US eyeing return of proxy forces program in Ukraine
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The return of the 2018-era program would allow US forces to send commandos to Ukraine under the guise of "control teams".
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Ukrainian soldiers in a combat training. (AFP)
The US is currently pondering the return of a number of secretive programs from the 2018 era, which would allow it to send commandos to Ukraine to oversee Ukrainian forces, and thereby take part in directing Ukrainian forces on the battlefield, according to the Washington Post.
The renewal of the secretive "1202 programs" would allow the US army to direct Ukrainian efforts in countering "Russian disinformation" or take a more direct approach and “monitor troops movements on the ground.”
The program, if it were to be reinstated, will not be revived until 2024, as Congress isn't set to debate the issue before Fall 2023.
The "1202 programs" were part of a Pentagon initiative that allow for “the creation and command of proxy forces” to carry out actions against so-called ‘rogue regimes’ and “‘near-peers’ like Russia and China,” Katherine Yon Ebright from the Brennan Center explained in November, 2022.
Read more: US approves Ukraine strikes on Crimea - reports
Also, former US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, had said during his confirmation hearing for his post, “Section 1202 authority… is a highly useful tool for enabling irregular warfare operations” and “expanding the competitive space to deter and defeat coercion and aggression” by governments targeted by the US.
According to Ebright, although a number of US programs that targeted Russia were "based on a theory of constitutional self-defense," this time, the 1202 programs could be used to justify low-level combat.
Elbright further noted that as long as "the US government’s 2002 AUMF is on the books, no law stops the Defense Department from creating a 1202 proxy force to combat Iran-backed militias and related targets,” referring to the Act the US used in its justification for a number of attacks, including the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020.
Moscow has on several occasions accused the US of being directly involved in the war in Ukraine, as the US has gone beyond delivering weapons to Ukraine or rallying NATO in an effort to prolong the war, but has also been involved in providing intelligence and targeting support to Ukraine's forces.
