The United States will start training Ukrainian forces on the Patriot missile system later this month, the U.S. Defense Department said, CNN reported.
According to Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, the training will take “several months," CNN wrote.
Earlier on Jan. 5, the Defense Department said it is considering training Ukrainians on the Patriot in the U.S. or overseas, "or a combination of both."
“I think clearly we’re at a point in this battle where we’re going to be able to provide that kind of training to enable Ukraine to sustain those kind of systems so that they can focus on defending their country and taking back territory,” Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing on Jan. 5.
The U.S. announced it would supply Patriots to Ukraine — the most advanced air defense weapon in its arsenal that Kyiv has been long pleading for – at the end of December ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington, D.C.
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