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Paratroopers from Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade en route to Ukraine.
Paratroopers from the US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade have arrived in Ukraine to begin training that country’s national guard and provide it with new military equipment. The Ukrainian government took power in a US-backed coup in early 2014 and has waged war on eastern provinces that wish to breakaway from what they see as an illegitimate government.
The US military action, dubbed “Operation Fearless Guardian,” will improve the Washington-backed faction’s ability to wage war against the breakaway regions, but at least in spirit will violate the “Minsk II” ceasefire agreement which mandates a “pullout of all foreign armed formations, military equipment.”
The US military involvement on behalf of the US-backed government in Kiev comes at a key time in the shaky ceasefire. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has noted a serious increase in fighting in the breakaway eastern regions of Ukraine and OSCE monitors have pointed the finger at US-backed Kiev as the instigator of these new attacks.
The relevant OSCE report finds:
…that the Ukrainian side (assessed to be the Right Sector volunteer battalion) earlier had made an offensive push through the line of contact towards Zhabunki (“DPR”-controlled, 14km west-north-west of Donetsk…
The US military’s “Operation Fearless Guardian” will ultimately involve some 300 US Army personnel “training three battalions of Ukrainian troops in a range of infantry tactics.”
With Ukraine’s US-backed president promising to “retake” the breakaway regions in the east despite having signed the ceasefire, it is clear that US training constitutes the beginning of direct US military involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. As such it is undeniably an escalation.
Photo: P.J. HARTMAN/U.S. ARMY
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