US says NATO military trainers will eventually be sent to Ukraine: report
Gen. Charles Brown, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says it is only a matter of time before NATO military trainers are sent to Ukraine, according to a report in the New York Times.
It comes as Ukraine battles to hold the line against Russian offensives in Ukraine's northeast such as the city of Kharkiv as well as in the east and south – and just weeks after the U.S. agreed to send an extra $60 billion in aid to the war-torn country.
Ukrainian officials have asked their U.S. and NATO counterparts to help train 150,000 new recruits closer to the front line for faster deployment, the New York Times reports.
Brown told reporters on Thursday that a decision to deploy trainers was inching closer.
"We’ll get there eventually, over time," he told reporters, according to the New York Times.
Manpower has long been an issue for Kyiv's military as it fights a much larger and better-equipped foe. The problem has grown more acute in recent months, prompting authorities to introduce stricter measures for draft evaders, while the draft mobilization age has been lowered from 27 to 25, with the upper limit being 60.
The new law offers parole to convicts who sign a contract to join the army, a move that some officials have said could generate a maximum of 20,000 soldiers for the Ukrainian war effort. Those convicted of the most serious crimes, such as the premeditated murder of two or more people, rape and crimes against national security, would still not be allowed to enlist.
But the new recruits need to be trained and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling on the West for help.
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However, the move to deploy trainers could draw the U.S. and Europe more directly into Russia’s war with Ukraine. U.S. leaders have said they will not put U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine and have urged NATO allies not to do so either.
Brown said that such a move now would put NATO trainers at risk and would most likely mean deciding whether to use precious air defenses to protect the trainers — instead of critical Ukrainian infrastructure near the battlefield, the New York Times reports.
An attack on trainers could force the U.S. to honor its NATO obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, thereby dragging it into war.
Former President Eisenhower sent U.S. advisors to train forces in South Vietnam in 1956 as he was worried about the spread of communism. The U.S. got incrementally sucked into military operations in Vietnam with former President Kennedy deploying 12,000 U.S. military advisors stationed in Vietnam by 1962.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., tells Fox News Digital that deploying military trainers would lead to a wider war in the region.
"Play stupid games win stupid prizes. This escalation will not make one American's life better and will drag us closer to the brink of global conflict," Crane, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said in a statement.
"We should be pushing for peace talks because that is what best serves American interests."
It is unclear which NATO countries are considering sending military trainers and how many would need to be deployed and for how long.
Fox News Digital reached out to the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for further comment but did not immediately receive a response.
In February, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had not ruled out the possibility of European Union member states sending troops into Ukraine to stave off Russia’s invasion.
The latest Russian offensive began last week in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, marking the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began in 2022 and forcing thousands to flee their homes.
In recent weeks, Moscow’s forces have also sought to build on gains in the eastern region of Donetsk. Taken together, the developments mean the war has entered a critical stage for Ukraine’s depleted army.
Meanwhile, overnight, Ukraine launched its largest-ever kamikaze drone attack on Russia while Russian President Vladimir Putin visited China, killing two people and causing an oil refinery fire in the Black Sea, according to officials.
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Ukraine fears new Russian offensive is only ‘the first wave’
Ukraine is just about holding the line, for now.
But President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia's new offensive in the northeast — which saw the Kremlin's troops sweep across the border and capture miles of territory before being halted by Kyiv's army — could be just the first of many.
Russia’s summer assault "could consist of several waves," Zelenskyy said Friday in an interview with the AFP news agency, adding: "There was the first wave" in the Kharkiv region.
It's just the latest suggestion by a Ukrainian official that Moscow's military might be planning to open new fronts across the front lines while Kyiv waits for U.S. military aid and new conscripts to boost its depleted forces. Zelenskyy also renewed criticism of his Western backers, saying they had left his country in a "nonsense situation" where it gets enough support to avoid total defeat, but not enough to achieve victory.
"They are helping Ukraine to keep going but not to win the war," Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, told NBC News. "And they don’t seem to actually want to give Ukraine what it needs to win the war."
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Russia launched a new offensive a week ago in a bid to exploit Ukraine's issues before new support arrives, raising fears that even the country’s second-largest city could fall into Moscow’s hands.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday his goal was to carve out a buffer zone around Russia's own under-fire border regions, rather than to seize Kharkiv itself.
“There are no such plans today,” he said after wrapping up his visit to China.
Zelenskyy has downplayed Russia’s gains, but he warned that Moscow was still the one advancing.
“I won’t say it’s a great success [for Russia] but we have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory,” he told AFP, “not vice versa.”
Kyiv is also desperate to replenish its own military, but analysts say that Ukraine is losing troops faster than it can replenish them and the new efforts might be too late, even if Ukraine were to get the weapons it has been asking for.
On Friday, Zelenskyy signed into law a new bill that will allow some convicts to be drafted into the military in exchange for being released on parole. And a new mobilization law comes into effect Saturday.
“No matter how many thousands of rounds of artillery you got, you can’t have a soldier in two places at once,” said Frank Ledwidge, a former British military intelligence officer and a senior lecturer in war studies at England’s University of Portsmouth.
"An army is a really complex system of systems which interlock and takes years to build huge resources," he said. "You don't just conjure them up."
Zelenskyy acknowledged issues with manpower and “morale,” but said for now his troops had stabilized the front lines and that Russian forces had advanced no more than 6 miles into Ukrainian territory. Fierce fighting is ongoing in the streets of Vovchansk, a front-line town from which thousands of residents have fled in recent days.
Ukraine rushed reserves to the area, a move that helped prevent further losses in the northeast. But it could spread its forces even thinner on the battlefield and expose other parts of the front lines as the Russians push in the eastern Donetsk region and reportedly mass forces near Sumy, west of Vovchansk.
The Russian military said it had dealt Ukraine another setback in the area Saturday by taking control of Starytsya, a village to the west of Vovchansk.
The Ukrainians did not comment on the claim, though Kyiv's general staff said in an update that "the enemy does not stop trying to break through the defense of the Ukrainian troops" in the area. "Our defenders are trying to push back the enemy," it said.
NBC News could not independently verify the battlefield reports from either side.
While the Kremlin’s forces may not be sufficient to take Kharkiv, Ledwidge said, “they’re sufficient to probe Ukrainian forces and expose the lack of their defenses,” and the fall of Starytsya is another example.
Zelenskyy has blamed the lack of air defenses for the breach around Kharkiv, on Friday repeating his plea for more defense systems and fighter jets.
“In many ways, the most successful Russian campaign of the last few months hasn’t been on the ground,” O’Brien said. “It’s been the missile campaign against Ukrainian power, and that’s a huge problem.”
Ukraine is waiting for the $60 billion in U.S. military aid that was approved last month, which includes rocket launch systems, artillery rounds, infantry vehicles and other military equipment.
While his allies are calling for a swift end to the war, Zelenskyy says Ukraine will only accept a “fair” peace solution.
“We are in a nonsense situation where the West is afraid that Russia will lose the war,” he said. “And it does not want Ukraine to lose it.”
Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to forge deeper ties this week as their countries increasingly clash with the West, and Zelenskyy wants to use Beijing's "influence" with Moscow to his advantage.
He urged China to attend a summit next month in neutral Switzerland, while Russia has not been invited.
China and other global powers “have influence on Russia. And the more such countries we have on our side, on the side of the end of the war, I would say, the more Russia will have to move and reckon with,” he said.
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The model for NATO defending Ukrainian airspace from Russian attacks already exists, says German politician
The model for NATO defending Ukrainian airspace from Russian attacks already exists, says German politician.
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Germany is showing cross-party support for defending Ukraine's border regions from NATO territories.
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NATO is currently focused on providing additional defense aid to Kyiv.
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A German politician said the Western defense of Israel from Iran is a blueprint for protecting Ukraine.
The Western response to Iran's barrage of attacks against Israel represents a potential model for defending Ukraine's border regions from NATO territories, a German politician has said.
Calls have been growing for NATO countries to use air defenses based in eastern Europe to take down Russian missiles and drones targeting Ukraine.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's Secretary-General between 2009 and 2014, told the UK's i Paper that interceptor missiles from neighboring NATO countries like Poland and Romania could shoot down Russian airstrikes aimed at Ukraine.
Voices within both ruling and opposition parties in Germany have expressed support for defending Ukraine's border regions from NATO territories such as Poland and Romania, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a Christian Democratic Union politician and former Bundeswehr general staff officer, compared defending Ukraine to Western efforts to prevent Israel from being hit by 300 missiles and drones fired at Israel in April.
Nearly all the munitions were intercepted by Israeli and partner forces in the region, including the US military.
Kiesewetter told Business Insider in a statement: "Western countries could protect part of Ukraine's airspace from NATO territory and shoot down Russian unmanned missiles. This would relieve the burden on Ukrainian air defenses and allow them to protect the front.
As in the case of Israel, where France, the UK, and others helped, which meant they did not become a warring party."
Echoing Kiesewetter, Rasmussen told the i Paper said NATO could do "exactly the same" and help Ukraine shoot down incoming Russian drones and missiles.
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Ukraine believes US-made Patriot missiles are key
Germany has emerged as a key player in the debate over NATO defending Ukraine's airspace. In April, it bolstered Ukraine's air defense capabilities and agreed to equip it with a Patriot air defense system.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Germany has sent Patriot systems with missiles, 2 SKYNEX systems with ammunition, IRIS-T SLM missiles, and Stingers.
Germany's multipartisan calls for defending Ukraine's airspace point to a future of collaborative air defense.
Marcus Faber of the the Free Democratic Party says that after the end of the war, an "international protection force" could be organized by the EU or NATO, per FAZ.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for more Patriots to defend Ukraine's airspace.
More than 100 Patriot air-defense systems could be spared by Ukraine's allies, Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba
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Zelensky expects Russian offensive in northeast Ukraine to intensify
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an exclusive interview with AFP on Friday he expects Russia to step up its offensive in the northeast and warned Kyiv only has a quarter of the air defences it needs to hold the front line.
Russian forces, which made only moderate advances in recent months, launched a surprise assault in Kharkiv region on May 10 that has resulted in their biggest territorial gains in a year-and-a-half.
Zelensky said Russian troops managed to advance between five to 10 kilometres (3-6 miles) along the northeastern border before being stopped by Ukrainian forces, but added that the region could be the "first wave" in a wider offensive.
"I won't say it's a great success (for Russia) but we have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory," he said, speaking from Kyiv in his first interview with foreign media since the offensive began.
Zelensky said the situation in the Kharkiv region has been "controlled" but "not stabilised".
He doubled down on pleas to allies to send more air defence and fighter jets to combat Russia's air superiority as the war grinds through its third year.
"Today, we have about 25 percent of what we need to defend Ukraine. I'm talking about air defence," he said.
Ukraine needs "120 to 130" F-16 fighter jets or other advanced aircraft to achieve air "parity" with Russia, Zelensky said.
- Kharkiv assault -
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a trip to China this week the northeastern offensive was in retaliation for Ukraine's shelling of border regions and that Moscow was trying to create a "security zone".
Russian forces have taken 278 square kilometres (107 square miles) between May 9 and 15, their biggest gains since the end of 2022, AFP calculated using data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Governor Oleg Synegubov said Saturday Ukraine's armed forces had repelled two attempts to break through defences overnight, with the situation "under control."
Ukrainian officials have accused Russian soldiers in Vovchansk of capturing dozens of civilians to use as "human shields" to defend their command headquarters -- a claim AFP was not able to immediately verify.
"In the area of the city of Vovchansk, Ukrainian troops are reinforcing their defence to improve the tactical situation," Synegubov said.
Ukraine has evacuated almost 10,000 people from the northeast border area since Russia launched the assault.
Putin said there was no intention at this stage to take Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border. More than one million people still live there.
Military analysts say the northeastern offensive could aim to further stretch Ukrainian troops and resources, with Russia pressing its manpower and ammunition advantage.
Ukraine army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Russia was trying to force Ukraine to pull up even more troops from its reserves.
"We realise that there will be heavy fighting ahead and the enemy is preparing for it," he said.
- 'Nonsense situation' -
As he anticipates a widening Russian offensive, Zelensky acknowledged issues with staffing and "morale" within Ukraine's often outgunned and outmanned ranks.
"We need to staff the reserves... A large number of (brigades) are empty," Zelensky told AFP.
With no end to the war in sight, Ukraine's army is struggling to recruit, while fighters are growing exhausted and angry at the lack of rotation.
Many Ukrainian soldiers have been fighting for more than two years without the possibility of being discharged.
Under a controversial mobilisation law that comes into force Saturday, Kyiv has lowered the age at which men can be drafted from 27 to 25 and tightened punishments for those who avoid being called up.
But lawmakers scrapped a proposal to grant soldiers who have served for more than 36 months the option to be discharged.
As Western allies press for a quick end to the war, Zelensky insisted Ukraine is still playing the long game.
"The West wants the war to end. Period. As soon as possible. And, for them, this is a fair peace," he said.
"We are in a nonsense situation where the West is afraid that Russia will lose the war. And it does not want Ukraine to lose it," Zelensky said.
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