United States Department of Defense announced on Wednesday that it will once again start training exercises with the Ukrainian military as the Russian invasion enters its sixth week. The joint training programmes came to a halt at the onset of the invasion.

Latching onto a US military aid package from the White House, the Pentagon announced the new phase of training with the Ukrainian military. United States President Joe Biden spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday and informed him about the new package.

John Kirby, the spokesperson for the Department of Defense, announced the revamped training programmes soon after Biden wrapped up his call with Zelensky. 

“We’re still working through what those options are going to look like, what that training is going to look like, how many U.S. troops are going to be involved in it, where is it going to be, how long. It’s going to depend”, Kirby said.

“But we believe that we can put together appropriate training for some of these systems very, very quickly”, the spokesperson added, as per Washington Post reports.

The United States previously placed more than 100,000 troops in Western European countries, which may be used to conduct the training exercises with Ukrainian forces, Pentagon indicated. 

The new weapons and equipment that are being sent to Ukraine from the United States require proper training, the Department of Defense said while clarifying the purpose of the exercises.

John Kirby, however, repeatedly emphasised that the American troops would not enter Ukraine for training and the location is still being decided, Washington Post reported.

The Ukrainians will receive armored personnel carriers, armored Humvees, naval drone vessels used in coastal defense, and gear and equipment used to protect soldiers in chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological attacks.

“This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement.