During World War II, Reichskommissariat Ukraine (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime (Reichskommissariat) of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories headed by Alfred Rosenberg. Between September 1941 and August 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Erich Koch as the Reichskommissar. The administration's tasks included the pacification of the region and the exploitation, for German benefit, of its resources and people. Adolf Hitler issued a Führer Decree defining the administration of the newly occupied Eastern territories on 17 July 1941.[2]

Before the German invasion, Ukraine was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, inhabited by Ukrainians with Russian, Polish, Jewish, Belarusian, German, Romani and Crimean Tatar minorities. It was a key subject of Nazi planning for the post-war expansion of the German state. The Nazi occupation of Ukraine ended the lives of millions of civilians in The Holocaust and other Nazi mass killings: it is estimated 900,000 to 1.6 million Jews and 3[3] to 4[4] million non-Jewish Ukrainians were killed during the occupation; other sources estimate that 5.2 million Ukrainian civilians (of all ethnic groups) perished due to crimes against humanity, war-related disease, and famine amounting to more than 12% of Ukraine's population at the time.[5]

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US training Ukrainians at ex-Nazi Wehrmacht base

The US has been training Ukrainian forces for eight years and is using a major base in Germany to continue doing so, a top general said

The US military is currently training Ukrainian troops to operate new howitzers, drones and other NATO-supplied equipment at the Grafenwoehr range in southern Germany, the head of the 7th Army Training Command confirmed on Wednesday. Brigadier General Joseph Hilbert told reporters that the US military has trained over 20,000 Ukrainian troops over the past seven years, in anticipation of a conflict with Russia.

Grafenwoehr, located in eastern Bavaria, was originally built by Imperial Germany ahead of the First World War. It was expanded by the Wehrmacht in 1938 and used to practice Blitzkrieg tactics. The US military occupied it in 1945 and has operated it ever since.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Hilbert confirmed earlier reports that Florida National Guard troops were training Ukrainians on the new M777 howitzers sent by the US as military aid to Kiev. The first group, which a Pentagon official on Monday said numbered 170 instructors, has already returned to Ukraine, while another 50-60 are currently completing their training, Hilbert said.

“They understand how to operate it and employ it as effectively as they can on their own and in accordance with their own tactics and their own doctrine,” Hilbert said, referring to the new hardware. He called the Ukrainians who came to Germany for training “absolutely motivated, incredibly professional,” according to comments reported by Bloomberg News.

Hilbert revealed that the US has spent an estimated $126 million over the past seven years to train Ukrainian troops, including building an entire base in western Ukraine for the purpose. Some 23,000 soldiers had been trained inside Ukraine by January 2022, he said. Kiev’s forces also took part in “over a dozen” large-scale exercises with US troops in Germany since 2015.

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia began after the February 2014 US-backed coup in Kiev overthrew the democratically elected government, triggering a referendum to rejoin Russia in Crimea and declarations of independence in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

“The worst thing the Russians did was give us eight years to prepare,” Hilbert told reporters, adding that the Ukrainian troops took US training “to heart” and built an effective corps of non-commissioned officers.

Lieutenant Colonel Todd Hopkins of the Florida National Guard said that his unit was planning a division-level exercise in Ukraine when orders came to pull out. Some 160 members of the FNG left Ukraine prior to the escalation of hostilities with Russia on February 24.

Hopkins said the FNG had focused on building up the base in Yavorov to handle brigade-level training. Russia targeted the base with cruise missiles on March 13, destroying much of it. Moscow said up to 180 foreign mercenaries were killed in the strike; Ukrainian officials spoke of 40 Ukrainian troops killed and 130 injured.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/554975-training-ukraine-troops-germany/

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Gerhard Schroeder has spent his private-sector career since leaving office in 2005 effectively furthering the cause of European economic strength by developing sources of cheap Russian energy to serve the EU's industrial and consumer needs. If Germany and the bloc still have the ability to say no to Washington without having to worry about the economic repercussions that they could face, Schroeder should be at the top of their thank-you lists for that.

Instead, the European Parliament has now drafted a resolution – non-binding at this stage – urging Brussels “to extend the list of individuals targeted by EU sanctions to the European members of the boards of major Russian companies and to politicians who continue to receive Russian money." The resolution does not name any names, but such an extension would mean that Schroeder, as well as several others, could become the target of asset freezes and property confiscations. Such measures are currently being applied to Russian ‘oligarchs’, who have lost their mansions and yachts on EU territory. Now, the bloc could start taking away property from its own citizens.

The threat of this has pushed Schroeder into resigning his position as chairman of the supervisory board of Russian oil giant Rosneft, which he has occupied since 2017. He is also chairman of the shareholders’ committee of the Nord Stream pipeline projects to deliver Russian gas to European markets through Germany. These projects are cornerstones of German and broader European economic independence, notably from dependence on American energy – which is why Washington hounded and sanctioned them into stoppage.

Schroeder was well rewarded for the jobs in the Russian energy sector – reportedly to the tune of $1 million a year (including $600 thousand in Rosneft), but this is not that unusual compared to other former high-ranking politicians who moved on to make money in the private sector.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/555813-gerhard-schroeder-eu-energy-security/

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