Moscow warns against US continued training Ukrainian soldiers
The United States has launched a new phase of training of
Ukrainian servicemen, a fact, which may have negative consequences for the
future of the Donbas truce, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria
Zakharova said on Thursday.
She recalled that 300 US instructors from the 173rd US
airborne brigade had trained three battalions - 780 people - for Ukraine’s
National Guard in a period from April to November, reports Tass.
"It is noteworthy that the training completed at a time
when the situation on the line of contact in Donbas started getting worse and
the newly trained people were apparently sent there," Zakharova said.
"Now the Americans and their NATO colleagues, including
the Lithuanians and Canadians, will train a new group of Ukrainian troopers. It
is clear that such preparations are unlikely to deescalate tensions and may
have a negative impact on the fragile truce in the country’s southeast,"
the Russian diplomat stressed.
"The presence of foreign paratroopers and their weapons
on the Ukrainian soil means gross violation of the Minsk package of measures,
point 10 in particular, by the Kiev government," Zakharova said adding
that point 10 provides for the OSCE-monitored withdrawal of all foreign units,
military vehicles and mercenaries from the Ukrainian territory.
"It does not say that this provision applies
exclusively to (Ukraine’s) eastern provinces. The Kiev authorities
unequivocally took a commitment which does not contain any reservations and
concerns the entire territory under their control," the Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesperson said.
US Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a spokesperson for the US
Department of Defense, has recently said that the United States is starting a
second phase of training of the Ukrainian army and is planning to train and
equip six army battalions, including one special operations unit.
Ukrainian troopers will undergo training according to the US
Fearless Guardian program launched in 2014. At its first stage, the United
States trained and equipped the National Guard units, which are subordinate to
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. Now, the US instructors will train army
battalions.
Three hundred military instructors of the 173rd airborne
brigade of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy, will undergo
training at the Yavorovsky testing ground in the Lviv region, Western Ukraine.
A special operations battalion will be prepared in the West Ukrainian city of
Khmelnitsky.
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