Will US proposal to expand training of Ukrainian forces bring us closer to world war III?

Officials within the Biden administration are considering a new proposal that would dramatically expand America’s role in training the Ukrainian armed forces, a move that could put the country on the path to war. 

As many as 2500 more Ukrainian soldiers could be trained monthly at the US Army base in Grafenwoehr, Germany. 

The new training regimen would not only provide training to more Ukrainian soldiers but also more sophisticated types of training that Ukraine’s armed forces have yet to receive from their American allies. 

Instruction on coordinating infantry maneuvers, artillery support, and more combined arms training are just a few of the more sophisticated battlefield tactics that could be offered to Ukrainian troops as part of the program. 

An unnamed Senior Biden official refused to publicly comment on the proposal, telling American news outlet CNN that “we won’t get ahead of decisions that haven’t been made, but we are constantly looking for ways to make sure the Ukrainians have the skills they need to succeed on the battlefield as Ukraine defends their territory from Russian aggression.”

The proposal was made at the behest of the Ukrainian government and has come at a time when the onset of winter has slowed the country’s military offensives. 

Kyiv’s offensives in both the north and east have stalled out but the expansion of training Ukrainian troops in new and varied forms of modern battlefield tactics could prove decisive in the spring. 

“It’s a good idea because [Ukraine] needs all the training they can get,” said Mike Kofman, an expert on the Russian and Ukrainian militaries at the Center for Naval Analyses. 

But the largest discrepancy on the battlefield isn’t the quality of troops but rather the arms and ammunition they need to conduct successful operations. 

“The Ukrainians aren’t going to be as effective at combined arms maneuvers if they don’t have enough artillery ammunition,” Koffman continued. 

All of this speculation about America’s increased role in training Ukrainian troops has sparked debate among experts who worry that the ever-increasing role in Ukraine could lead to a direct confrontation with Russia. 

At the moment, Russian bombings of Ukrainian power infrastructure have left many in Washington wondering about the next steps on the escalation scale.

“Heat, water, electricity, for children, for the elderly, for the sick — these are President Putin’s new targets. He’s hitting them hard,” American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a press conference during a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Bucharest. “This brutalization of Ukraine’s people is barbaric.”

The Biden administration is now contemplating sending Ukraine Patriot missiles in an attempt to bolster the country’s air defenses amid continued Russian assaults on its critical infrastructure. 

While Russian officials have yet to comment on the possibility of America’s expanded role in training Ukrainian troops, they have denounced the possible supply of Patriot missiles to Ukraine.

Ex-Russian President Dimitri Medvedev warned America and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies against supplying long-range or defense missiles to Ukraine. 

Medvedev labeled the alliance as a “criminal entity” for considering delivering more advanced arms to what he called “Ukrainian fanatics”. 

Kremlin officials also canceled nuclear arms talks with the United States at the last minute in late November after Washington refused to address Russian concerns over the strategic stability of the war in Ukraine. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned American officials over their increasing support for Ukraine against Russia during the country’s “special military operation” to disarm its neighbor. 

“We are sending signals to the Americans that their line of escalation and ever deeper involvement in this conflict is fraught with dire consequences. The risks are growing,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian state media. 

Could this lead to a direct confrontation with Russia? That is anyone's guess. But the proposal to train more Ukrainian troops came just as relations between the two countries seem to have reached their breaking point.