Ukraine has inspired the world with its fierce resistance to the invading Russian forces that have destroyed its cities, unleashed unspeakable atrocity and forced millions to flee a war now entering a fourth month.
Thousands of miles away in California’s capital, California National Guard and Governor’s Office of Emergency Services are sending tools to help support Ukraine’s fighting forces: field hospitals and medical supplies to treat the wounded, helmets and ballistic vests by the thousands donated by state guards across the country to fit and protect forces in the field, and more supplies on the way.
The connection between the California guard headquarters and Ukraine’s military began long before Russia’s invasion. California troops have been heading to central Europe to train with Ukrainian troops since the 1990s, and have hosted their counterparts here through a partnership the Pentagon nurtured following the fall of the Soviet Union.
California National Guard’s headquarters and its joint operations center have been busy since the invasion began 10 weeks ago, with the first calls from Ukraine coming 30 minutes into the initial attacks, California National Guard leaders have said.
“California’s National Guard has formed an unbreakable bond with our Ukrainian counterparts and when the call was made to provide support and aid in a time of need, we responded with overwhelming support,” California National Guard Adjutant General Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, said in a statement.
That bond was renewed in September when Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Northern California. He met with Baldwin and California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis at Moffett Field in Mountain View.
Baldwin in turn met with Ukraine military leaders in central Europe as the war neared in November and Russia began to amass troops.
“Gen. Baldwin talks with Ukrainian generals on a regular basis — the relationship is there,” said retired California National Guard brigadier general, now Sacramento Superior Court Judge Donald Currier. Currier trained Ukrainian forces in Lviv and in San Luis Obispo for several years beginning in 1997 before retiring from the California Guard in 2012.
Through the National Guard and the Office of Emergency Service, California has shipped five 50-bed field hospitals to Ukrainian cities since March, according to the Governor’s Office. Another two 50-bed medical stations are being sent by the Office of Emergency Services to Ukraine through a partnership with humanitarian charity Direct Relief of Santa Barbara.
California National Guard put out the call for protective gear to National Guard units nationwide. The result: 4,320 ballistic vests and 1,580 helmets, say state emergency officials.
More Ukraine shipments planned
The shipments followed a March meeting between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Ukraine Counsel General Dmytro Kushneruk where Newsom reiterated California’s solidarity with Ukraine and called for state sanctions to cut off funds to Russia.
The Ukrainian people have shown “phenomenal resilience under extraordinarily difficult circumstances,” Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci said in a statement, pledging that more shipments are planned to arrive in the coming weeks.
The relationship between Ukraine and the California National Guard goes even deeper than training and support. California is home to one of the nation’s largest Ukrainian-American populations including the Sacramento-area’s own deeply rooted Ukrainian community.
For some California National Guard members past and present, the war in Ukraine feels intensely personal, the bonds between the two nations borne of a lasting partnership between the Guard and the Ukraine military that began at the end of the Cold War.
“We have been partnered with Ukraine for 30 years. Not just last year. Not just this week. For 30 years,” California National Guard Brig. Gen. Peter B. Cross said at a rally for Ukraine at the state capitol in March, the Guard publication Grizzly reported. “We have friends in Ukraine. This is personal for us.”
The Department of Defense called it the State Partnership Program, funding and establishing relationships between states’ National Guards and their counterparts in 72 countries across Europe and Africa, Asia, Central and South America and the Caribbean. California and Ukraine were among the program’s first pairings in 1993. California also partners in the program with Nigeria’s armed forces.
The joint training in Ukraine and in the U.S. was broadly designed to build relationships between the two nation’s armed forces and boost readiness.
“We spoke the common language of tactics,” Currier said. The key difference — the US military’s philosophy of enlisted men and women sharing and leading decision making in the field, in contrast to the top-down style of Russia and the East.
California wildfires, natural disasters
That their missions were similar also helped strengthen the relationship between the two forces. Both the California National Guard, tested by the state’s destructive wildfires, and Ukrainian military responded to natural disasters and other crises.
Together, they worked to bolster Ukraine’s cyber security, build its military’s medical readiness and train and develop Ukraine’s enlisted officer corps, Currier said.
“It was a very worthwhile experience. We trained them on how to handle corruption. We developed academies for their (non-commissioned officers); humanitarian aid and training,” Currier said. “The soldiers were very interested in learning. It was clear that they wanted what we had to offer. They begged for it.”
Nearly 30 years after their partnership began, California National Guard and Ukraine armed forces have participated in roughly 1,000 training exercises and exchanges together, said Lt. Col. Brandon Hill, a Guard spokesman.
“We’ve had a pretty lengthy, robust relationship. They count on us to support them in these areas,” Currier said. “It’s gratifying to see them adopt that and stand up to the Russians.”
Now Currier watches on as Ukraine’s troops have rallied the world community with their courage and impressed military leaders with their determination. Their grit and resilience in the war’s early days surprised nearly everyone but their California counterparts in uniform, said Currier.
“They are fiercely independent. They love their country. They’re forced to fight,” Currier said. “It’s gratifying to see their determination.
In Currier’s chambers, the bonds he formed in Ukraine are revealed in the details: The hammered copper above his desk, a farewell gift from Ukrainian officers. The blue-and-yellow banner pinned to the wall behind his shoulder. The pride he has for the faraway troops he and his people once trained.
Today, Currier says of the Guard and the Ukrainian soldiers he trained as a military police commander, “Though I’m not a part of it, they’re still a part of me.”
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