U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has said that the role and strength of U.S. troops in Ukraine will remain unchanged.

"Right now, we have some trainers there helping to train their army to NATO standards, and that has a lot to do with making certain it serves the needs of the Ukrainian people, in the way democracies' armies do, so the U.S. military role remains the same," he told reporters on Friday.

He also said that "there are no plans to change that number at all."

According to him, the number of trainers can grow only in the event of an increase in the number of servicemen who will need to be trained.

"I don't think our number has fluctuated in six months, and it's not planned to be now," he said.

According to the Voice of America, Mattis also commented on the impact of lethal weapons on the situation in Ukraine, which Washington officially agreed to sell to Kyiv in December.

"As long as no one wants to invade Ukraine, hopefully [lethal weapons] won't have any big impact. They're defensive weapons," Mattis said.

In December, it became known that the U.S. Department of State had approved the sale of sniper systems to Ukraine. Later, the Department of State said the United States also announced its readiness to provide Ukraine with defensive weapons.