--- title: Ukraine Troops to Get More American Training description: The United States will expand its current training programs for troops in Ukraine to include army and special operations military forces canonical: https://time.com/3971959/ukraine-russia-us-training/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-24T21:21:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:25.451Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. to Train More Ukrainian Troops og:description: Amid ongoing tension between Ukraine and Russia og:url: https://time.com/3971959/ukraine-russia-us-training/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc97dd2ef04d148b/69885c6f196cf499c1037426/us-trains-ukrainian-soldiers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3920 og:image:height: 2205 og:image:alt: Ukraine us soldiers training og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. to Train More Ukrainian Troops twitter:description: Amid ongoing tension between Ukraine and Russia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc97dd2ef04d148b/69885c6f196cf499c1037426/us-trains-ukrainian-soldiers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. to Train More Ukrainian Troops > Sponsored content. 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The author of this week's TIME cover story and an acclaimed Getty photographer paint a rarely seen image – through words and photographs – of the aftermath of the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine_  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jul 24, 2015 9:21 PM UTC  A US serviceman teaches Ukrainian soldiers how to give emergency medical aid during the Rapid Trident/Saber Guardian 2015 military exercises at the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre base outside Lviv, Ukraine on July 24, 2015. A US serviceman teaches Ukrainian soldiers how to give emergency medical aid during the Rapid Trident/Saber Guardian 2015 military exercises at the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre base outside Lviv, Ukraine on July 24, 2015. Pavlo Palamarchuk—AP  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jul 24, 2015 9:21 PM UTC The United States will expand its current training programs for troops in Ukraine to include army and special operations military forces, the State Department [said Friday](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/24/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKCN0PY28A20150724?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm%5Fsource=twitter). The training will likely focus on lessons in tactics and combat medicine, Reuters reports. The expanded program will not include any lethal weapons or aide, a State Department spokesman told reporters. The U.S. began providing security assistance to Ukraine in 2014, with troops training Interior Ministry national guard units to strengthen the country’s security in the face of threats from Russia-backed rebels. Including this expanded training program, the U.S. will have spent over $244 million on supporting Ukraine since last year. [\[_Reuters_\]](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/24/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKCN0PY28A20150724?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm%5Fsource=twitter) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] There weren't a lot of people there. There weren't very many people around. There were some journalists who were filming. In the field we could see sticks with white scraps of cloth tied onto them. There were some local coal miners who have been sent over by their bosses to help with the clean up effort. It just spread randomly around everywhere as far as you could see. There were these sticks with the ribbons on them. And there were just a few of the rebel fighters, just one of them guarding the road leading up to it. So it, it felt quite deserted. Right next to the road was a big black smudge where a section of the plane had landed. Everything was charred, and we could see twisted chunks of metal, we. We could see luggage strewn all over the place. And mixed in with all of that we could see the bodies of the victims. In the first day or two after the crash happened, the, the separatists in, in the region didn't play much of a role at all. In fact, I only saw maybe a handful of them the entire first day, that Friday the day after. The plane crash happened. There was no one who had, stopped, access to the site. We were able to roam freely through, the fields where the wreckage and everything, it was open. There was no one, there was no one to stop us. The rebels themselves are a mixed bunch. A lot of them are local guys, many who were unemployed when the conflict broke out. Some of them petty criminals, some of them just regular citizens, regular men who took up arms under the impression that the revolution that brought a new government to power in Ukraine in February was a fascist revolution, and they needed to defend their home [ FOREIGN ] By the second day, on Saturday, there were separatists who were in control of the site. They were just as shocked as anybody, and couldn't believe what had happened, didn't have any clue who might be responsible, certainly didn't feel like it had anything to do with them. And were just as devastated as any and, as anyone else would be by the scene [ MUSIC ] The most elite and well trained well armed, gunmen among the rebels are Russian, they've come over for the most part as volunteers paramilitary fighters, they see this as a conflict of civilizations, as Russia's opportunity to ,. Regain control of land in Eastern Ukraine that they think historically, culturally, by right, belongs to Russia. I think what's interesting about the, the separatists that are operating in the eastern part of the Ukraine right now, is their command structure, it's still very, very. Loose, and authority is only fleeting and ephemeral. There is no one in charge except for the person who's at that spot at that time. They wear mis- matching camouflage uniforms, they're usually armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. They have grenades usually in their pockets. A lot of the fighters that I've met seem to get quite a kick out of the impunity that they enjoy in Eastern Ukraine, they are in full control of these cities. There were times when the separatists did prevent us from doing the reporting that we wanted to do, we wanted to access the site. And at one point, the man who was the, the leader at that time, at that spot, he raised up his gun and, and I don't speak very much Russian but I understood enough of what he said to get the point. Which was if you don't speak Russian, then maybe you'll understand [ INAUDIBLE ] is was clear we couldn't, we couldn't stay around and photograph anymore. [ MUSIC ] The smell is probably the most. Disturbing, and, and the part that's hardest to remember. Crash scene it's self was exceptionally gruesome, there were a lot of things that I saw at that scene that I wished I had never had laid my eyes on. The, the most difficult part of being at the crash site. Was seeing the piles of personal belongings. There was children's pink suitcases. I saw a diary, I saw this one itinerary printed out for a family vacation to an Island I think in Indonesia, plans for an elephant ride, notes in the margin about how fun it's going to be. And that really brought home how these lives have been completely, senselessly interrupted by a conflict that I think a lot of them probably either have never heard of or knew very little about. There are plenty of things that I did photograph that I would never in a million years, publish, just because I felt like it needed to be photographed for historical purposes but not necessarily to appear in tomorrow's newspaper. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3971959/ukraine-russia-us-training/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3971959/ukraine-russia-us-training/"},"headline":"U.S. to Train More Ukrainian Troops","datePublished":"2015-07-24T21:21:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:25.451Z","description":"Amid ongoing tension between Ukraine and Russia","url":"https://time.com/3971959/ukraine-russia-us-training/","keywords":["Foreign Policy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc97dd2ef04d148b/69885c6f196cf499c1037426/us-trains-ukrainian-soldiers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc97dd2ef04d148b/69885c6f196cf499c1037426/us-trains-ukrainian-soldiers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ukraine us soldiers training","caption":"Ukraine us soldiers training","creditText":"Pavlo Palamarchuk—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3971959/ukraine-russia-us-training/","name":"U.S. to Train More Ukrainian Troops"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch: TIME's Simon Shuster And Getty's Brendan Hoffman on The MH17 Aftermath","description":"The author of this week's TIME cover story and an acclaimed Getty photographer paint a rarely seen image – through words and photographs – of the aftermath of the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TUxxp7Jz/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-24T02:21:56.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TUxxp7Jz.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3971959/ukraine-russia-us-training/","duration":"PT5M27S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3971959/ukraine-russia-us-training/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```