Companies bidding for defense contracts will reportedly be responsible for the risks faced by their employees
The administration of outgoing President Joe Biden has lifted a de facto ban on deploying US defense contractors in Ukraine to repair American-made armaments, Reuters and CNN reported on Friday, citing anonymous Pentagon officials.
This reversal of previous US policy comes just as vocal Ukraine conflict skeptic Donald Trump won the popular vote and secured his second term in the White House. While it is unclear whether Trump would have continued the prior policy, he has repeatedly promised not to put American lives at risk and to rapidly conclude the conflict once in office again.
The potential American presence on the ground will be “small” and located “far” from the front lines, and they are not expected to engage in combat, Reuters wrote on Friday, citing an anonymous US official. As the US and its NATO partners have provided Kiev with increasingly sophisticated American-made armaments, such as F-16 fighter jets and Patriot air defense systems, restrictions have slowed repairs and proven increasingly challenging. Much of the equipment has been damaged beyond repair by Kiev’s own specialists.
The policy change aligns the Pentagon more closely with the US State Department and USAID, which already have contractors in Ukraine, according to another official.
“These contractors will help the Ukrainian Armed Forces rapidly repair and maintain US-provided equipment as needed so it can quickly return to the front lines,” CNN wrote on Friday, citing a defense official. Specifically, F-16 jets and Patriot batteries “require specific technical expertise to maintain,” they said.
Allowing US contractors to work in Ukraine will provide a faster alternative to the current method of transporting equipment to NATO countries like Poland and Romania for repairs, CNN noted.
Meanwhile the risks of being killed by Russian strikes will fall on the companies bidding for the Pentagon contracts.
“Each US contractor, organization, or company will be responsible for the safety and security of their employees and will be required to include risk mitigation plans as part of their bids,” CNN cited a defense official as saying.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that Moscow is aware of the “direct involvement of NATO troops in this conflict.” He pointed out that several high-tech systems the US and its allies have provided to Kiev, such as ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles, require the involvement of Western officers to operate them.
The Russian Defense Ministry regularly reports airstrikes on repair facilities in Ukraine. This week alone, the Russian military carried out at least 38 strikes on Kiev’s military-industrial complex facilities, as well as supporting energy and military infrastructure, according to the latest report on Friday.
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