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According to a memo obtained by CNN and confirmed by two US defense officials, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved the treatment of wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a US military hospital in Germany.
For the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the plan would allow Ukrainian troops to be treated at a US military hospital. It allows for the treatment of up to 18 wounded soldiers at a time at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a massive hospital in Germany where the military has for years treated injured US service members.
According to the memo, Austin gave verbal approval on May 26 to begin treating wounded Ukrainian soldiers. Austin formalized the verbal guidance with a memo titled “Guidance for Medical Treatment of Wounded Ukrainian Service Members” on June 29.
Despite receiving final approval for the plan nearly a month ago, Landstuhl has yet to receive Ukrainian service members for medical care. “We have not treated any Ukraine troops at Landstuhl,” a US European Command official told CNN.
According to the official, the memo’s purpose was to remove any red tape that would slow down the process of providing treatment if the need arose. The plan would allow for treatment if no facilities were available in Ukraine or a neighboring country. Landstuhl is about 700 miles from Ukraine’s border.
If wounded Ukrainian troops were to be evacuated to Landstuhl, they would have to leave Ukraine by train or car before the US, which has no troops in Ukraine, could fly them to Ramstein Air Base.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, posted a video on Twitter on Monday showing Ukrainian soldiers receiving prosthetic legs at a hospital in Chicago. A second video, released on Tuesday, showed the soldiers walking on prosthetic limbs.
However, this appears to be the first authorization for Ukrainian troops to be treated in military facilities rather than civilian hospitals.
In late April, a bipartisan group of congressmen wrote to Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the administration to do more to support Ukraine’s and Poland’s “struggling healthcare systems.” One of the requests was for Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to “scale up” to treat sick and injured Ukrainians.
The authors stated that it would be similar to the US decision last year to provide treatment to Afghan refugees transiting through the nearby Ramstein Air Base. The letter also urged the administration to send armored ambulances and set up military field hospitals along the Poland-Ukraine border.
“You have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to demonstrate American leadership by providing medical assistance to Ukrainians, which will inspire other NATO states to follow suit,” the authors wrote.
Austin had received the letter dated April 22 and would “certainly take it seriously and respond appropriately,” according to John Kirby, then the Pentagon press secretary. Kirby stated that any decision to provide field hospitals or US humanitarian assistance would be made after consulting with the host country.
CNN has requested comment from a number of the letter’s signatories.
The top US general spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart on the day Austin issued verbal guidance to begin providing treatment to Ukrainian soldiers. A transcript of the conversation between Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Gen. Valery Zaluzhny makes no mention of opening US military medical facilities to Ukrainian service members.
Austin formalized the verbal guidance one month later when he met with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. According to a transcript of the call, Austin provided an update on US security assistance efforts, but no mention of treating Ukrainian soldiers was made.
