ABC News reported Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges U.S. Army Commander (Europe) briefed that a battalion of U.S. soldiers is tasked to train three battalions of Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops near Lviv in western Ukraine.

Training includes improved defensive techniques against artillery and rockets, operating with jammed communications, securing infrastructure, and treating and evacuating casualties.

The plan to deploy US troops to Ukraine to train Ukranians has been in the works for months and is strangely similar to a deployment of US troops to Georgia before hostilities broke out between that country and Russia.  The US troops were withdrawn before hostilities broke out but the Russians made a big show of capturing some US HMMWV’s.

The House of Representatives introduced a bill to provide one billion dollars in defensive arms to Ukraine.  These would be weapons not particularly suited to offensive operations most likely Javelin anti-tank missiles.