Military training for Ukrainian troops will be organised in Lithuania shortly, Lithuania’s Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Valdemaras Rupšys has said.
“To achieve maximum effect, we will soon organise military training for Ukrainian troops here in Lithuania,” Rupšys told a press conference on Sunday. “We are ready to train their instructors to prepare them to work with the military equipment, machinery, or weapons that we operate.”
“We will train most of them with anti-tank weapons,” the chief of defence added on Monday after his meeting with Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas and President Gitanas Nausėda.
According to Rupšys, the number of incoming Ukrainian troops is not “subject to disclosure”.
In his words, the decision to resume the training of Ukrainian troops is bilateral and was reached during the defence minister’s visit to Kyiv.
“We have been organising this training for Ukrainians in Ukraine and Lithuania since 2015 and we will continue it now. We are ready to train a group of soldiers because there is a shortage of soldiers [in Ukraine] trained to work with our equipment and weapons,” Rupšys said.
“Only Lithuanian instructors will train them. It has not been organised as NATO training,” he added.
Rupšys told reporters about plans to train Ukrainian troops on Sunday after his meeting with the Chief of Staff of the US Army James C. McConville, who is visiting Lithuania. The meeting covered regional threats, deterrence, and defence implications, as well as regional plans and military cooperation between the countries.
“We have rotational forces here, and our policymakers have said that they will defend every inch of NATO, and they are working through what that will look like as far as rotational or permanent troops as we speak,” McConville told the press conference.
The US has been building up its military presence on the eastern flank since Russia invaded Ukraine. The Americans plan to deploy a total of 400 additional troops, as well as short-range air defence and self-propelled artillery systems, in Lithuania. They have also deployed F-35 fighter jets at Šiauliai Air Base, and troops from the US Special Operations Forces (SOF) are serving in Lithuania.
US troops serve in Lithuania on a rotational basis, but the country’s politicians are seeking a permanent American presence.
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