BRUSSELS (Dispatches) — The U.S. military’s new, expanded combat training of Ukrainian forces began in Germany, with a goal of getting a battalion of about 500 troops back on the battlefield to fight the Russians in the next five to eight weeks, said Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Milley, who planned to visit the Grafenwoehr training area on Monday to get a first-hand look at the program, said the troops being trained left Ukraine a few days ago. In Germany is a full set of weapons and equipment for them to use.
Until now the Pentagon had declined to say exactly when the training would start.
Milley said the complex training — combined with an array of new weapons, artillery, tanks and other vehicles heading to Ukraine — will be key to helping the country’s forces take back territory that has been captured by Russia in the nearly 11-month-old war.
The new instruction comes as Ukrainian forces face fierce fighting in the eastern Donetsk province, where the Russian military has claimed it has control of the small salt-mining town of Soledar. Ukraine asserts that its troops are still fighting, but if Moscow’s troops take control of Soledar it would allow them to inch closer to the bigger city of Bakhmut, where fighting has raged for months.
Russia, Belarus Launch Air Drills
Belarus said Monday that joint air force drills with Russia began on its territory. The drills will last until February 1, the ministry said earlier.
All military airfields in Belarus will be involved in the drills, Minsk has said.
The ministry added that the exercises will involve training in aerial reconnaissance, joint patrolling of the state border, tactical air assault landing, the delivery of goods and evacuation of wounded.
Officials have described the drills as defensive.
Russia has produced the first nuclear warheads for the Poseidon super torpedoes to be deployed on the Belgorod nuclear submarine, TASS reported on Monday, citing an unidentified defense source.
“The first Poseidon ammunition loads have been manufactured, and the Belgorod submarine will receive them in the near future,” TASS quoted the source as saying.
President Vladimir Putin first announced what would become known as Poseidon in 2018, saying it was a fundamentally new type of strategic nuclear weapon with its own nuclear power source.
In the 2018 speech, Putin said the range of the torpedo would be unlimited and that it could operate at extreme depths at a speed many times that of any submarine or other torpedoes.