In its final months in office, President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to allow U.S. defense contractors to work in Ukraine to maintain and repair Pentagon-supplied weaponry, U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday, in a significant policy shift aimed at to help Kiev in the fight against Russia.
An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the contractors would be small in number and located far from the front line. They will not be engaged in fighting.
“With a small number of contractors in Ukraine, performing maintenance away from the front lines will help ensure that US-supplied equipment can be quickly repaired when damaged and receive maintenance as needed,” the official said.
The information was confirmed by CNN, which, citing an official familiar with the file, reported that the Biden administration had lifted a de facto ban on the deployment of US military contractors to Ukraine to help the Ukrainian military maintain and repair US-supplied weapons systems. especially F-16 fighter jets and Patriot air defense systems.
The new policy, approved earlier this month before the election, would allow the Pentagon to award contracts to US companies for work in Ukraine for the first time since the Russian invasion in 2022. Officials said they hoped it would speed up maintenance and repair of the systems. of weapons used by the Ukrainian army.
It is not clear whether Donald Trump will keep this policy in place when he takes office in January. Trump said he hopes to end the war between Ukraine and Russia “within 24 hours” of returning to the White House, but did not specify how he would do it.
For the past two years, Joe Biden has insisted that all Americans, and especially American troops, stay away from the Ukrainian front line. The White House had decided to limit both the danger to Americans and the perception, especially from Russia, that the American army would be engaged in combat in Ukraine. The State Department has explicitly warned Americans not to travel to Ukraine starting in 2022
Source: www.cotidianul.ro
