ANKARA
About 300 U.S. paratroopers have arrived at Ukraine's International Peacekeeping and Security Center to train the Ukrainian national guard forces, the U.S. army said in a statement Thursday.
The paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrived in the western city of Yavoriv Tuesday and Wednesday they began a six-month training rotation with Ukrainian national guard forces, the statement said.
Under the training program known as the “Fearless Guardian,” the U.S. will train three battalions of Ukrainian troops with a focus on building capacity with the newly established national guard units, it added.
"We will be conducting classes on war-fighting functions, as well as training to sustain and increase the professionalism and proficiency of military staffs," Maj. Jose Mendez, a brigade operations officer in the statement, said.
‘US presence destabilizes situation’
The presence of U.S. military instructors in Ukraine is destabilizing the situation in the country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday, Russian news agency TASS reported.
"Of course, the presence of such specialists from third countries does not at all contribute to resolving the conflict and creating a favorable atmosphere and on the contrary, destabilizes the situation," Peskov was quoted as saying.
This move comes as the inter-Ukrainian conflict and the situation in the country’s southeast are still unresolved and there are problems with the implementation of the Minsk agreement, he added.
'Violates Minsk agreement'
Separatist leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, also that said that the arrival of the U.S. paratroopers would make the situation even worse, in addition to violating the Minsk agreement.
"The arrival of U.S. military instructors in Ukraine will aggravate the situation in Donbass. It is a violation of Minsk agreement," Pushilin tweeted Friday.
Pushilin told reporters that after the U.S.-Ukrainian exercises end, the equipment would remain in the country, Russian news agency Sputnik reported Friday.
"One of the goals that Ukraine is following in the joint exercises is that when the NATO soldiers leave, their equipment will remain," he was quoted as saying.
The joint military exercise will begin Monday, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense announced Friday.
The Minsk cease-fire agreement of Feb. 12 foresees the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from combat areas, the withdrawal of all foreign-armed formations and the release of all hostages and unlawfully detained persons, as well as political reforms and decentralization in the eastern Ukrainian regions.
More than 6,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists since April 2014, according to the United Nations.
