New Zealand Sends Troops to Train Ukrainians to Fight Russia Weeks After PM's Calls for ‘Diplomacy’

The United States and its allies have spent years and billions of dollars providing weapons assistance and training support for Kiev, with aid ramped up dramatically since the escalation of the long-embering crisis in February.

New Zealand will deploy an additional 120 troops to provide training to their Ukrainian counterparts across four bases in the UK, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.

“New Zealand has been clear that we will continue to answer the call of Ukraine for practical support as they defend their homeland and people against Russia’s unjustified invasion. We know that one of the highest priorities for Ukraine right now is to train its soldiers, and New Zealand is proud to stand in solidarity alongside a number of other countries to answer that call,” Ardern said in a statement on Monday.

The 120 troops will join thirty New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel deployed to Britain in May to train Ukrainian forces in the use of L119 light howitzers. The new troops’ mission will be to train about 800 Ukrainian infantryman for combat, including in the handling of weapons and emergency first aid.

The reinforcements are expected to make their way to Britain aboard commercial flights over the next three weeks, with the deployment set to end at the end of November.

New Zealand Defense Minister Peeni Henare said the new deployment would allow the NZDF to “gain valuable experience through conducting core soldier skills in a foreign environment, alongside key partners, which promotes retention in our defense workforce.”

Henare emphasized that all training will take place “exclusively” in Britain, and that “our DZDF personnel will not enter Ukraine.”

The defense minister also revealed that Kiev had made a request that Wellington send it some of its Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs), but that New Zealand had declined the request, because the vehicles would give the Ukrainians “a problem instead of supporting” due to lack of spare parts and training, and because they are “an older piece of kit.”

New Zealand has previously deployed its LAVs in Afghanistan, and in domestic policing operations. The country’s army is estimated to have more than 100 of the armored vehicles.

New Zealand has sent about $25.5 million in assistance to Ukraine since February, including millions of dollars’ worth of helmets, body armor, and camo kits. The country has also provided Ukrainian intelligence with access to its commercial satellites.

The announcement on the trainers' deployment comes just weeks after Ardern decried attempts by the West to isolate big countries like Russia and China instead of engaging them, and emphasized that "diplomacy must become the strongest tool and de-escalation the loudest call."

Despite its unassuming nature and record of opposition to US belligerence in the 1970s and 1980s, which led to the country’s temporary suspension from the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) between 1986 and 2012, Wellington has not shied away from getting involved in Western military and police actions across the globe, from the Malayan Emergency of 1948-1960, to the Korean War of 1950-1953, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the War in Afghanistan.

The US and its allies have committed tens of billions of dollars’ worth of military aid to Ukraine since February, on top of billions in support sent earlier to train the Ukrainian army to fight pro-independence militias in the country’s east in the wake of the US-backed 2014 coup d’état in Kiev.

Russian officials have slammed the West for these actions, with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeatedly accusing Washington and its allies of seeking to “fight [Russia] ‘to the last Ukrainian’” in a proxy war against Moscow.