CNN visits a refugee arrival center in Ukraine 2:23
(CNN) — US troops in Poland have been training Ukrainians on how to use weapons sent to Ukraine by the West, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
President Joe Biden said Monday that US troops in Poland “helped train Ukrainian soldiers” in that country. The troops were stationed there to bolster NATO’s eastern flank during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Training is another way the US has aided the Ukrainian military while trying not to directly engage Russian forces, which could spark a larger war.
The soldiers told Biden while he was in Poland how they were giving the Ukrainians tactical weapons training, the sources said.
“We talked about helping train Ukrainian troops stationed in Poland,” Biden said Monday. He tried to clarify a comment he made to US troops last week that they would see “when you get there … women, young people, standing in the middle of the damn tank and saying, ‘I’m not going. I stand firm.'”
A White House official told CNN, “There are Ukrainian soldiers in Poland who regularly interact with US troops, and that’s what the President was referring to.”
The sources told CNN that although US troops are training Ukrainians at a military base in Poland, it is not “formal” training.
Rather, the training is more tactical and on-site, the sources explained. This includes showing Ukrainian soldiers picking up arms shipments in Poland how to use some of these devices, like the Javelin anti-tank missiles, which the West has been shipping in large numbers. Poland has become the central transit point for arms shipments to Ukraine.
The US has provided Ukraine with $1 billion in security aid in the last month alone and intends to equip the Ukrainian armed forces with more than 9,000 shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons, including javelins; nearly 7,000 small arms, including machine guns and grenade launchers; 20 million rounds of ammunition; and 100 armed drones.
“These are direct transfers of equipment from our Department of Defense to the Ukrainian military to help them fight this invasion,” Biden said earlier this month. “We will continue to work on this in the coming days and weeks.”
NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Tod D. Wolters told US lawmakers on Tuesday that the United States had provided “advice and assistance regarding material” being shipped to Ukraine, but that US forces had “Currently in the training process” are Ukrainian armed forces in Poland.”
“There are liaisons out there seeking advice, and that’s different than what I think you’re referring to in terms of training,” Wolters told Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas when asked about the training .
Wolters said separately during the hearing: “As you know, we have significantly improved our information and intelligence sharing, and while [los ucranianos] Go ahead with your campaign, our advice and help with the material will be very, very important,” Wolters said.
Although the US and NATO have so far ruled out sending troops to Ukraine, there has been robust information sharing between US and Ukrainian forces alongside tactical military training, CNN had previously reported.
According to two sources familiar with the exchange system, in most cases the information shared includes information about the movements and location of Russian forces, as well as intercepted communications about their military plans.