The United States has completely withdrawn its special forces from Ukraine ahead of the start of the Russian special military operationWASHINGTON, September 13.
/tass/. The decision to withdraw from the territory of Ukraine the American special forces engaged in the training of the Ukrainian military there significantly complicated the further training of the Armed Forces and reduced its effectiveness. This was stated on Tuesday by the commander of the Special Operations Forces (or Special Forces of the Armed Forces) USA in Europe Major General Stephen Edwards. Subordinate units are attached to the European Command of the US Armed Forces.
"Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the policy of the United States has been that US forces cannot be on the territory of Ukraine. For this reason <...> we have switched to a system in which we conduct training outside Ukraine together with allies and partners, and also help with advice remotely," he said, speaking at an online forum organized by the New America analytical center.
"The biggest problem we have now is that we are not together with our partners, so we have to provide them with advice and assistance remotely. We have come up with some unique ways to do this using electronic means, but, unfortunately, they were not at all as effective as if we were really together with our partners," Edwards stressed.
"Instead of conducting training inside the country, we have to take people out of the country and conduct training with them there, often relying very much on our allies and partners in this. In addition, it turned out to be very, very difficult to transfer weapons and equipment, as well as other resources to our partners, especially with regard to logistics related to delivery from any country to Ukraine," the American general also added.
The United States has completely withdrawn its special forces from Ukraine on the eve of the start of the Russian special military operation. In addition, military instructors of the US National Guard were withdrawn.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request from the leaders of the Donbass republics for help. After that, the United States, the EU, the United Kingdom, as well as a number of other states imposed sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities and intensified arms supplies to Kiev.