U.S. State Department Official: 'U.S. Forces Have Much To Learn From Ukraine’s Fight With Russia'

© AFP 2019 / YURIY DYACHYSHYN

Military Times: US forces have much to learn from Ukraine’s fight with Russia, says State Department official

Five years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot out of the sky, killing all 298 aboard, a State Department official tells Military Times that the ongoing battle between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists serves as a potential harbinger for the U.S. military in any conflict with Moscow.

“Ukraine is a laboratory of techniques and procedures,” George P. Kent, deputy assistant secretary in the European and Eurasian Bureau at the U.S. Department of State, told Military Times Tuesday afternoon. “The Russian military runs a sniper training school there. Instead of doing it on a range in Russia, they just do on the front lines with Ukraine. Much of the equipment that they are developing that shows up elsewhere, including in Syria, they try out first in Ukraine.”

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WNU Editor: A few months ago I was reading a news report on a Russian military official saying exactly the same thing about American methods and tactics being used by Special Forces in Syria and Iraq, and what Russian forces were learning from that conflict. Bottom line .... both sides are looking at each other, and are using their allies to test their tactics and equipment. It is almost as if the Cold War never ended.