The Florida National Guard reported details of their “Task Force Gator” mission in Ukraine to Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis, according to a document obtained by NATIONAL FILE. The Florida National Guard was deployed to Ukraine to train Ukrainian fighters immediately prior to the Russian invasion. This revelation raises even more questions about Ron DeSantis’ foreign policy credentials. Would DeSantis as president actually be committed to stopping the war in Ukraine or would he simply roll over to the neocons and plunge America even deeper into World War 3?
Task Force Gator is reportedly a federal mission that has been part of an operation that Barack Obama started in Ukraine during his previous administration. The Florida National Guard reportedly arrived at a training center in Ukraine in 2021 and taught Ukrainian fighters how to shoot rocket launchers. The Pentagon pulled the Florida National Guard out of Ukraine shortly before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. As of 2022, the Florida National Guard had continued training Ukrainian forces from the Florida National Guard’s perch in Germany.
Governor DeSantis, who has power over the Florida National Guard, apparently has not publicly objected to his Guard serving in Ukraine on a federal mission in the run-up to war, nor has DeSantis evidently objected to his Guard later helping Ukraine from their perch in Germany. Now we know that the Florida National Guard sent extensive briefing materials to DeSantis that explained the massive amount of military work that the Guard was doing in Ukraine.
In the Florida National Guard’s Adjutant General’s Report for the 2022 fiscal year (READ THE DOCUMENT HERE), which opened with a “LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA” and signed by major general James O. Eifert, the Florida National Guard described their activities in Ukraine. The report was prepared for and addressed to Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
The Florida National Guard report to DeSantis has an entire section profiling the Guard’s work in Ukraine, beginning on page 10, complete with photographs of training exercises.
The Florida National Guard report states: “In late November of 2021, Task Force Gator arrived in Yavoriv, Ukraine to assume the JMTG-U mission. Their mission was to conduct multinational partnering and advising operations in order to assist the AFU in developing the Combat Training Center in Yavoriv into a self-sufficient brigade-level combat training center, similar to the U.S.’s own Joint Readiness Training Center and the National
Training Center.”
