Nearly 300 soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrived in Ukraine this week after a 1,100 mile march from northern Italy, during an operation known as Fearless Guardian. Starting Monday, April 20th, the paratroopers will begin training Ukrainian troops, a plan which will continue over the next six months.
"This assistance is part of our ongoing efforts to help sustain Ukraine’s defense and internal security operations," Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez told the Hill when the operation was first announced.
But the Pentagon has now admitted that it will be engaged in overt combat training.
"We will be conducting classes on war-fighting functions, as well as training to sustain and increase the professionalism and proficiency of military staffs," Major Jose Mendez, operations officer for the brigade, was quoted by the US Army website.
"The training will help them defend their borders and the sovereignty," Captain Ashish Patel said, according to the site.
Specifically, the US Army soldiers will train the Ukrainian National Guard battalions. Reformed in 2014, they became the most active combat forces fighting with anti-Kiev militia in the country’s east. Its troops openly displayed far-right sympathies, brandishing swastika-like insignias, throwing Nazi salutes, and posing with Hitler portraits.
After the discovery of mass graves in the Donbass region, containing the bodies of more than 400 executed civilians and independence supporters, Ukrainian guardsmen were accused of war crimes and human rights violations.
Ukrainian military officials have also emphasized the fact that the Pentagon will be engaged in combat training.
"The Americans have enormous combat experience and will teach skills to our military that can be used in combat," Ukrainian army spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a news conference on Friday.
The exercises will begin on Monday, despite warnings from Moscow that Western meddling will only embolden the radical reserve units, and made a bad situation even worse.
"The participation of instructors and experts from third countries on Ukrainian territory…of course, does not help to resolve the conflict," President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies. "On the contrary, it can seriously destabilize the situation."
Earlier this week, Canada also announced that it would deploy 200 troops to Ukraine to assist in the training exercises. The United Kingdom has already sent dozens of military instructors.......http://sptnkne.ws/ee6
17/4/15
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Some 300 US airborne troops arrive in Ukraine’s Lviv...
ReplyDeleteAround 300 US airborne troops arrived in western Ukraine’s Lviv on Friday to train Ukrainian servicemen to conduct combat actions, Kiev’s military operation spokesman, Andrey Lysenko, has said.
"Today, around 300 paratroopers of the 173rd brigade of the US Army arrived in Lviv," he said. The US troops will train the Ukrainian forces in how to establish defenses and actions as part of units.
US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt earlier on Friday confirmed that the 173rd Airborne troops have arrived in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov earlier wrote on Facebook that 290 US airborne troops are to land on April 20 in western Ukraine’s Lviv region at the Yavorov training range. The 173rd brigade and armed units of Ukraine’s national guard will hold joint training exercises under the agreement with the US State Department, Avakov said.........http://tass.ru/en/world/790163
17/4/15