The administration of the current U.S. President Joe Biden has allowed American defense contractors to work on the territory of Ukraine for the purpose of servicing and repairing military equipment used by the Ukrainian army.
The Reuters agency announced this with reference to unnamed officials of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
The agency's interlocutors said that American contractors will help ensure the rapid recovery of U.S.-provided equipment in the event of damage and perform maintenance as needed.
One of the sources emphasized that there is no question of participation in hostilities.
Contractors will be far from the front lines.
In the past, the Defense Forces of Ukraine had to either take U.S.-provided weapons out of the country for major repairs, or resort to video conferencing and other creative solutions to fix these systems.
Reuters interlocutors noted that previously these restrictions slowed down the repair of weapons, in particular such high-tech ones as the MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems.
One of the officials of the U.S. Department of Defense stated that the Ukrainian military does not use most of the American weapons because they are damaged.
This move by the Biden administration will put the U.S. Department of Defense on par with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which already have contractors in Ukraine.
There is no need to send troops to Ukraine to protect U.S. contractors.
All responsibility for their security rests with the companies that have signed contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on November 4, the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of State, Cardell Richardson, arrived in Ukraine to deal with issues of transparency and accountability of U.S. aid.
In September, the Bild publication wrote that the Ukrainian military does not use most of the Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers received from Germany, due to a lack of spare parts and worn barrels.
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