Some U.S. allies within NATO are considering sending military personnel to Ukraine to train its armed forces, reports the New York Times.
Several American military contractors are already on the ground repairing U.S.-supplied weapon systems.
Facing a shortage of troops, the government in Kyiv has asked the U.S. and NATO to “help train 150,000 new recruits” within Ukraine so they can be deployed to the front lines more quickly, according to the American newspaper.
This move “would further blur the previous red line” and could draw the U.S. and the EU “more directly into the war,” noted NYT.
Although the White House has publicly opposed sending instructors, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff believes it is inevitable.
“We will eventually get there over time,” General Charles Q. Brown Jr. told reporters on Thursday while traveling to Brussels.
A problem with deploying NATO instructors in Ukraine would be the need to divert already scarce air defense systems away from the battlefield to protect them from Russian air and missile strikes, according to the article.
The U.S. would be obligated to protect any NATO instructor within Ukraine from attack, “potentially drawing America into the war.”
French President Emmanuel Macron first raised the issue of sending NATO troops to Ukraine in February as an idea not to be excluded.
Since then, Estonia and Lithuania have expressed support for sending instructors or support troops to free up Ukrainian soldiers for combat duty.
The White House is “adamant” that it will not deploy U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine – including instructors – and has urged NATO allies not to do so, an anonymous White House official told the New York Times.
Meanwhile, Britain, France, and Germany are working on a plan to send contractors to maintain weapons in the combat zone, the American newspaper revealed.
Although the U.S. has prohibited defense contractors from going to Ukraine, “a small number have already been allowed, under the authority of the State Department, to work on specific weapon systems like the Patriot air defense,” the article noted.