The U.S. has stepped up its training of Ukrainian troops over the holiday weekend with new efforts to teach complex military tactics at an American base in Germany and instruction on how to operate a complex air defense system in Oklahoma, military officials said Monday.
Training in Germany is designed to teach hundreds of Ukrainian troops the complex military tactics that could improve the ability of Ukraine's army to launch new offensives and defend against Russian attacks, an extension of the support offered the government in Kyiv in the face of Moscow's invasion, according to a U.S. defense official.
Around 500 soldiers will receive what the military calls combined arms training in southern Germany, according to the defense official. During the training, they will learn how to coordinate units in battle using artillery, armor and ground forces.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the U.S. base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on Monday to view the training, which began on Sunday.
"This is not a run of the mill rotation," Milley said Monday afternoon as he met with commanders. "This is one of those moments in time where if you want to make a difference, this is it."
Milley, who visited the sprawling Grafenwoehr training area to get his first look at the new, so-called combined arms instruction, has said it will better prepare Ukrainian troops to launch an offensive or counter any surge in Russian attacks.
He spent a bit less than two hours at "Camp Kherson" -- a section of the base named after a city in Ukraine where Ukrainian troops scored a key victory against Russia last year. More than 600 Ukrainian troops began the expanded training program at the camp just a day before Milley arrived.
For the first time since the war began nearly a year ago, reporters were given broad access to watch various portions of the training. The reporters were allowed to follow Milley and watch his interactions with Ukrainian and U.S. troops and commanders, but were not allowed to report specific conversations with the Ukraine forces or take any photos or video. The restrictions reflect ongoing U.S. concerns about escalating Russian anger over the West's involvement in the war or triggering a wider conflict.
The U.S. has conducted training at Grafenwoehr for years, including for allied forces in Europe. But limited instruction for Ukrainian forces began last year, shortly after the Russian invasion. At the time it was focused specifically on various weapons systems that were being supplied by the U.S., such as the howitzer.
Speaking to two reporters traveling with him to Europe on Sunday, 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.
On Monday, as he walked through the training area, Milley bantered with troops, asking them about their combat experience and talking to them about their mission.
"The urgency was clear," said Army Col. Dave Butler, Milley's spokesman. "These soldiers are going off to defend their country in combat."
Milley said Sunday that the goal is for incoming weapons and equipment to be delivered to Ukraine so the newly trained forces will be able to use it "sometime before the spring rains show up. That would be ideal."
The training is the latest example of a twin-track approach pursued by the United States and other allies of the Ukrainian government -- supplying weapons and offering training.
And on Monday, the U.S. military announced that Ukrainian troops had arrived at Fort Sill, Okla., to begin training on the operation of the Patriot, an advanced ground-based air defense system. The Biden administration said in December that it would send the system as part of a $1.8 billion aid package in response to Ukrainian demands that followed months of Russian missile and drone attacks on civilian targets including energy infrastructure. Germany also will send Ukraine a Patriot missile system.
The military did not specify how many Ukrainian soldiers arrived over the weekend, but officials had previously said fewer than 90 were expected to receive the initial training.
"The training will focus on operator and maintainer tasks of the Patriot air defense system," said Donald Herrick, a spokesperson at Fort Sill.
Russian missile strikes have been causing the most damage in recent months, including strikes on infrastructure and an attack on Saturday in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, which killed dozens of civilians. The Patriot system can help defend against missile attacks, but the system can cover a limited area, and Ukrainian officials will have to choose which potential targets they will protect with it.
The training and weapons are intended to strengthen Ukraine's offensive and defensive capabilities as military planners in both the Kremlin and Kyiv plot operations for the next stage of the conflict. Since November, when Ukraine forced Russian forces to withdraw from the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine -- a significant victory -- the most intense fighting in the war has taken place in the Donbas region in the east of the country.
CAMBODIANS TEACH MINE CLEARING
Fifteen Ukrainian deminers are being trained by experts in Cambodia who are among the world's best because of experience from clearing the leftovers of nearly three decades of war.
The Ukrainian deminers are being hosted by the Cambodian Mine Action Center, a government agency that oversees the clearing of land mines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. The weeklong program began Monday and is supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Heng Ratana, the demining center's director general, said the Ukrainians will be trained by Cambodian experts at the Mine Action Technical Institute in the central province of Kampong Chhnang, visit demining sites in northwestern Battambang province and tour a museum dedicated to land mines and unexploded ordnance in Siem Reap province, home to the famous Angkor temples.
He said the training will focus on mine clearing using technology including a Japanese detection device called the Advanced Landmine Imaging System.
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch said last June that Russia is using land mines in Ukraine "that are causing civilian casualties and suffering, as well as disrupting food production."
"Russia is the only party to the conflict known to have used banned antipersonnel mines, while both Russia and Ukraine have used anti-vehicle mines," it said.
Cambodia was littered with land mines and other unexploded ordnance after almost three decades of war ending in the late 1990s. An estimated 4 million to 6 million unexploded devices remain uncleared and continue to kill people.
Since the end of the fighting, nearly 20,000 people have been killed and about 45,000 have been injured by leftover war explosives, although the average annual death toll has dropped from several thousand to less than 100.
Cambodian deminers have become among the world's most experienced, and several thousand have been sent in the past decade under U.N. auspices to work in Africa and the Middle East.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen pledged in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in November to send Cambodian demining experts to help train their Ukrainian counterparts.
Hun Sen has said the Cambodian deminers will be sent to Poland, a staging ground for much assistance to Ukraine, but Heng Ratana said Monday the number of deminers to be sent and their destination have not been finalized.
The offer came after Hun Sen. in an unusual move for a nation that usually aligns itself with Russia and China, condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, saying "Cambodia is always against any country that invades another country."
Cambodia was one of nearly 100 U.N. member countries that co-sponsored a resolution condemning Russia's invasion.
Several other countries, including the United States and Germany, have already provided Ukraine with demining assistance.
Information for this article was contributed by Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Mpoke Bigg of The New York Times and by Lolita C. Baldor and Sopheng Cheang of The Associated Press.