Pentagon working to form new command to coordinate arming and training Ukraine
By Oren Liebermann and Barbara Starr, CNN
The Pentagon is working to form a new command to coordinate arming and training Ukraine, according to two US officials, in an effort to streamline what was a largely ad hoc process rapidly created in the wake of Russia’s invasion.
The new command, which would be based at Wiesbaden in Germany, would fall under Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the commander of US European Command, which has led the multinational effort to train Ukrainian military forces on advanced Western weapons and deliver those weapons to the border with Ukraine, one official said. It is expected to be led by a 3-star general.
But the US has been careful in how it discusses the plans, which the officials emphasized is not a major change to the current system of organizing and administering shipments. Officials are careful not to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a reason to claim the US is party to the conflict, especially given the elevated rhetoric coming from the Kremlin about the threat of nuclear weapons usage.
The New York Times was first to report about the new command.
The Biden administration has openly signaled its ongoing and long-term support for Ukraine. This week, the Pentagon announced another $1.1 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine, which a senior defense official called a “multiyear investment” in the country’s defenses.
Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in late-February, the US has committed more than $16 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. Much of the aid is meant for the demands of the current fight, but increasingly, the administration has also focused on Ukraine’s medium- and long-term needs.
Since the first weeks of the war, the US has looked for ways to quickly and effectively translate Ukrainian requests for different types of equipment into shipments of weapons, turning a process that normally takes weeks or more into a matter of days.
As Ukrainian forces proved they could stand up to the Russian invasion, and as Putin’s aspirational quick victory turned into a bruising war, the number of countries willing to provide security assistance to Ukraine grew.
The US and its allies and partners established the Ukraine Contact Group, consisting of more than 40 countries meeting monthly, to coordinate shipments of weapons and equipment into Ukraine.
The new command would create a more formal structure within the military to manage the shipments, officials said. Its anticipated location in central Germany also places it close to many of the training areas used by the US and Western countries to teach Ukrainian forces how to employ Western weaponry.
The command would also work closely with the International Donor Coordination Center (IDCC), which has played a critical role in handling the logistics necessary to match the need for Ukrainian weapons with the available stocks of potential donor countries.
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