SYRACUSE — Some 140 New York Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the Syracuse-based 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team said farewell to their families on Friday, July 15, as they left on a mission that will take them to Germany to help train Ukrainian military personnel.

The soldiers will replace 160 Florida Army National Guard Soldiers from the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team’s Task Force Gator, who are deployed in support of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine mission.

Those troops had been training Ukrainian personnel at the Combat Training Center-Yavoriv near Lviv in western Ukraine since November 2021. The soldiers were ordered to leave Ukraine for Germany in February prior to the Russian invasion. The Florida team is now leading the training of Ukrainian troops in Germany and other locations.

The farewell ceremony took place at the Thompson Road Armory at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base.

The New York team will train at Fort Bliss, Texas, before deploying to Germany. They are expected to replace the Florida team to support the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine mission in September.

In 2017, the New York National Guard sent 220 Soldiers to Ukraine for a 10-month rotation training Ukrainian Soldiers at the Combat Training Center-Yavoriv.

The team was headed by the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry, which is headquartered at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, but included soldiers from across New York.

They replaced a team from the Oklahoma Army National Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in November 2017. The New York Army National Guard team was replaced by Soldiers from the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment in August 2018.

The Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine has been and continues to provide training and advisement to Ukrainian military forces since 2015.

Other nations that have supported the JMTG-U mission while it was at Combat Training Center-Yavoriv include Canada, Lithuania, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.