American Role In Russia-Ukraine War, Explained

What You Need To Know:

✓ The United States is committed to helping Ukraine defend itself in the conflict with Russia… The U.S currently has 300 soldiers stationed in Yavoriv and its soldiers are working together with Ukrainian solders on counter-fire radar, medical training, and basic defensive tasks;

✓ While Hodges believes that Ukraine has done a good job in their obligations, “the Russians and their proxies are not observing the ceasefire correctly;”

✓ “The United States army and Europe is completely focused on being ready to support our allies, to support our friends to demonstrate our commitment;”

✓ Strengthening the Eastern Frontier: apart from trainings in Ukraine, the U.S. and NATO will conduct other exercises in Eastern European countries in the coming months, and will create a permanent rotation.

The United States is committed to helping Ukraine defend itself in the conflict with Russia says Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the US Army commander for Europe. The U.S currently has 300 soldiers stationed in Yavoriv and its soldiers are working together with Ukrainian solders on counter fire radar, medical training, and basic defensive tasks. Hodges is impressed with Ukraine’s commitment in developing a training center, and believes that President Poroshenko’s announcement to improve the NCOs there will help soldiers in the ATO be successful.

While Hodges believes that Ukraine has done a good job in their obligations, “the Russians and their proxies are not observing the ceasefire correctly,” he says adding that “Russia would like to tear apart the unity of the EU, tear apart the unity of NATO to create weakness and division.” Much of what Russia has done is to confuse people to and to make it difficult to understand what’s actually going on.

The number one priority of both the United States and NATO in the conflict according to Hodges, is to deter further aggression. “The NATO summit in Warsaw will show the alliance transitioning from assurance to deterrence, ” he says, adding that “the United States army and Europe is completely focused on being ready to support our allies, to support our friends to demonstrate our commitment.”

In terms of strengthening the Eastern Frontier, apart from trainings in Ukraine, the U.S. and NATO will conduct other exercises in Eastern European countries in the coming months, and will create a permanent rotation -- a brigade made up of 4000 soldiers, tanks, infantry vehicles, artillery vehicles -- which will be stationed for nine months at a time in Baltic countries, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria. They will conduct training in each of those areas and will occasionally come together to demonstrate how quickly they can move.

Hromadske’s Nataliya Gumenyuk spoke to Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, US Army commander for Europe in May 2016 in Lviv.