White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield in her briefing room denied President Joe Biden accidentally revealed U.S. service members were training Ukrainian forces in Poland.
“No,” Bedingfield told reporters Tuesday. “The troops that he met with in Poland routinely interact with Ukrainians.”
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When pressed, Bedingfield repeated, “There is regular interaction between Ukrainian soldiers in Poland and the U.S. troops.”
Biden made the comment this week when asked to clarify whether U.S. personnel would be deployed in Ukraine. During his trip to Europe last week, he appeared to suggest to 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers stationed in Rzeszow, Poland, what they were “going to see when you’re there” in Ukraine is “women, young people standing — standing in the middle of — in front of a damn tank, just saying, ‘I’m not leaving. I’m holding my ground.'”
On Monday, Biden insisted, “We were talking about helping train the troops in — that are — the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland.”
“I sat there with those guys for a couple hours. That’s what we talked about,” he said. “I was referring to with — being with and talking with the Ukrainian troops who are in Poland.”
Gen. Tod Wolters, the head of U.S. European Command, contradicted Biden on Tuesday, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee that he did “not believe we are in the process of currently training military forces from Ukraine in Poland.”
“There are liaisons that are there that are being given advice, and that’s different than I think you’re referring to with respect to training,” he said.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan was more definitive when he spoke about the issue last week before Biden flew out to Belgium and Poland.
“On the question of U.S. troops, we do not have U.S. troops currently training Ukrainians,” he said. “We do not have U.S. troops on the territory of Ukraine.”
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“We do, of course, have U.S. troops defending NATO territory, providing reassurance to our allies, deterring Russian aggression,” Sullivan added. “And, of course, the United States is playing a key role not just in the direct provision of military equipment to Ukraine but in the facilitation of military equipment provided by many of our allies as well.”
