White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters yesterday that U.S. weapons intended for Ukraine continue to arrive in Europe, with five flights having landed in the previous few days and more than half a dozen more on the way. As for what new packages may be coming, she had nothing to say except to say that “we’ll have more soon on this.”
Reuters reported yesterday that U.S. troops have begun training Ukrainian troops on the U.S.- supplied howitzers which have already arrived in Europe. “It’s a smallish number of Ukrainians, a little bit more than 50,” an unnamed U.S. official said. The official declined to say where in Europe the training is happening, but said it is not occurring inside Ukraine. It’s likely that the transfer of arms and training of Ukrainians is taking place in southeastern Poland, where several thousand U.S. troops are currently deployed. After completing the instruction, the Ukrainian troops will return to the fighting and teach other troops how to use the American howitzers. Press reports note that while the U.S.-supplied howitzers are 155mm caliber, the standard size for howitzers in the Ukrainian military is 152mm, which means that the U.S.-supplied cannons can only use U.S.-supplied ammunition.
At about the same time, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby denied press reports claiming that the United States had facilitated the arrival of combat aircraft into Ukraine. Kirby attributed the reports to misinformation that he had mistakenly told reporters on Tuesday (April 19) indicating that Ukraine had received MiG-29 aircraft from NATO countries, when in fact they had received only parts of repairable aircraft already in the Ukrainian inventory. By means of those parts, he said, “they have been able to increase their fleet by quite a number.”
