Statewide Iowa — A state legislator met some of Ukraine’s soldiers during a military training mission in Europe in 2017. Todd Prichard of Charles City is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and his unit participated in drills with soldiers from NATO countries and partner nations, like Ukraine.
The training exercises in the summer of 2017 were staged in Poland and eight other countries. They focused on logistics and other defense capabilities. Some of the Ukrainian soldiers Prichard met had come directly from the Donbas region.
Prichard says the conduct of Russia’s army this year has been sobering.
Prichard was an Army platoon leader in Kuwait. After the Gulf War, he joined the Iowa National Guard and was a company commander in Iraq. He’s currently in charge of logistics for the Army Reserve battalion at Fort Des Moines. Prichard says the world shouldn’t be surprised by Ukraine’s resistance.
In the late 1800s, Russia was the largest country in the world and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked about restoring Russia empire in the lead up to the invasion of Ukraine this past February.
