Monday, April 20, 2015
6:52 AM PDT
Ukrainian servicemen
will be trained by UK, Canadian, and Polish military experts - Poroshenko
(Censor.NET) --- In addition to the U.S. experts, the Ukrainian military will be
trained by representatives of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom , Canada
and Poland .
President of
Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said, Censor.NET reports citing Interfax-Ukraine.
"I am glad to
announce that our American partners, who have sent representatives of their
armed forces to us, were joined by the Great Britain, Canada, Poland and many
other countries," Poroshenko said during opening of the Ukrainian-American
Command Post Exercise "Fearless Guardian - 2015" in the International
Peacekeeping and Security Center in Lviv region.
The president also
said: "It evidences the fact that our bilateral military cooperation
verged into a qualitatively new practical dimension. And those who work in the
Joint Committee on cooperation and defense reform have proved their salt."
Earlier, Canada 's Prime Minister Stephen Harper and
Defense Minister Jason Kenney voiced the decision to send a group of 200
military trainers to Ukraine .
It is expected that the Canadians will join the military trainers from the U.S. and the UK
in the west of Ukraine
in early summer of 2015 and will work there until March 31, 2017. Most of
Canadian trainers will be located at the base in Yavoriv town in the Lviv
region.
Monday, April 20, 2015
6:29 AM PDT
US, Ukraine
YAVORIV, Ukraine (AP) — Troops from the United States and Ukraine
kicked off joint training exercises Monday intended to help bolster Ukraine 's
defenses against incursions from Russian-backed separatists in the east.
Speaking under
driving rain at a military base in the western region of Lviv, Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko said the country's armed forces needed to be rebuilt
from scratch to deter foreign threats.
The exercises,
dubbed "Fearless Guardian-2015," sparked an enraged reaction from Russia ,
which described them as a potential cause of destabilization. Moscow
continues to dismiss mounting evidence of its involvement in fomenting and
supporting a separatist insurgency in Ukraine that has claimed more than
6,100 lives over the past year.
The 300 U.S. Army
paratroopers involved in the training traveled to Ukraine last week and will be
working alongside 900 national guardsmen.
"The majority
of the participants here from the Ukrainian side have endured difficult trials
on the front," Poroshenko said at the inauguration ceremony for the
exercises.
Fighting in the
east has ebbed substantially since the signing of a February cease-fire deal,
but sporadic clashes still break out along the 450-kilometer front line
separating government and rebel forces.
The truce deal
includes provisions for all "armed formations" to be pulled out of
the country. While Kiev interprets that language
as being aimed at the Russian forces that Moscow
denies are in Ukraine , the
Kremlin has argued the United
States is implicitly violating the
cease-fire deal by stationing its military trainers in the country.
Training for
Ukrainian troops is part of a broader package of assistance being provided by
the United States .
President Barack Obama's administration has said it will provide Ukraine 's
military with $75 million in nonlethal aid, but has refrained so far from
offering lethal equipment, despite calls from Congress to do so.
Last month, Ukraine began receipt of a planned consignment
of 230 Humvees from the United
States .
National guard
units, many of which began as volunteer groupings, have been an important part
of Ukrainian forces' fighting against the separatists. Two national guard
units, working on weeklong rotations, are holding part of the village of Shyrokyne
Ukrainian forces in
Shyrokyne said Monday that unrest there had subsided since the arrival of
observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe . The Azov Battalion, which is leading the
government's fight for the village, said heavy shelling had stopped, but
reported a continuation of small arms fire.
"As of 11
a.m., despite the fact that OSCE observers are working in Shyrokyne, snipers
are still targeting Azov positions," the battalion said in a statement.
Monday, April 20, 2015
6:18 AM PDT
Payment for
electricity from Russia
(Interfax) --- Ukraine has not paid for Russia electricity supplies to the
anti-terrorist zone (ATO) since April 10, Energy and Coal Industry Minister
Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at a press conference in Kiev on Monday.
"Since April
10, we haven't paid for electricity supplies from Russia ," he said when
commenting a situation with non-payment for electricity in the ATO zone.
Monday, April 20, 2015
5:19 AM PDT
Russia sends 50
trucks, 20 APCs, and 40 wagons of military equipment into Donbas
(UNIAN) --- Over the last few days Russia
has sent to the Donbas 50 Ural military trucks, 20 manned APCs and a freight
train with 40 wagons of military equipment, the spokesman of the government’s
Anti-Terrorist Operation headquarters, Andriy Lysenko, said at a briefing in Kiev
on Monday.
"According to
intelligence reports, over the past few days from the territory of the Russian
Federation via the Dolzhansky checkpoint Ural 50 military trucks and 20
infantry fighting vehicles with fighters seen were heading in the direction of
the town of Debaltseve" he said.
"And a freight
train of about 40 wagons carrying military equipment, which was covered with
tents, passed from the territory of the Russian Federation through Dolzhanska
railway station in the city of Sverdlovsk in Luhansk region," Lysenko
added.
As UNIAN reported
earlier, the militants have deployed a tactical groups of up to 120 fighters in
the area Shyrokino, according to reports from the Information Resistance group
of military experts.
"A buildup and
rotation of tactical militant groups continues, [with the groups] conducting
fighting in the Shyrokino and Pavlopol areas," the group said in a
statement.
Monday, April 20, 2015
5:11 AM PDT
Preparations for
fifth wave of mobilization commence in Ukraine - General Staff
(Censor.NET) --- With the fourth wave of
mobilization coming to an end, Ukraine began preparations for the fifth, the
head of the General Staff of Ukrainian armed forces Viktor Muzhenko said.
It is reported by
Censor.NET citing ZN.UA.
He noted that
50,000 troops were mobilized according to the plan during the fourth wave of
mobilization.
"We have
almost finished the fourth line of mobilization with figures that had been
planned," Muzhenko said.
The work on the
fifth wave of the military draft has already begun.
"The
mobilization resource is currently being studied. We have already started
handing out draft notices for medical examinations and clarification of
personal data. The official draft starts as soon as we are given a
corresponding order from the General Staff," deputy head of the Kiev
military office Ihor Sliusarenko said.
Despite fulfilling
the plan, military offices note some shortcomings related mainly to
insufficient numbers within certain categories of professionals, such as air
controllers.
A Cabinet decree
dated March 19 approved drafting 21,000 people to the army and the National
Guard in April and May.
Monday, April 20, 2015
4:06 AM PDT
No casualties within
the Ukrainian army over the past day - ATO speaker
(Censor.NET) --- The ATO headquarters
announced no losses among Ukrainian soldiers on April 19.
This was said by
the ATO speaker, Colonel Andrii Lysenko, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrainski
Novyny.
"No Ukrainian
soldiers were killed or wounded in fighting on April 19," Lysenko said.
Monday, April 20, 2015
3:36 AM PDT
SBU nets group of
dangerous terrorists in Shchastia
(Zik) --- The Security Service of
Ukraine arrested five terrorists posing as ‘Aidar’ volunteer battalion
servicemen, Luhansk administration website Apr. 20 report says.
The group is
suspected of raiding an Orthodox church in Triokhizbenka and plundering it.
The group is headed
by a Russian citizen, Chechen Ruslan Arsayev,
Arsayev took part
in paid political protests in Kiev in January 2015.
The terrorists were
arrested in Khmelnytsky after one of their acts and released on bail y the
local court which they jumped.
The terrorists were
wearing ‘Aidar’ battalion uniforms and went around Ukraine in a minibus with the
battalion’s number plates.
The group was
captured in Shchastia following a tip-off.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
23:28 PDT
Putin: Israel giving Ukraine
(Ukraine Israel
against helping arm Ukraine
in its struggle against eastern separatists Russia supports.
“This is a choice,
a choice of the Israeli leadership,” Putin said in an interview on Rossiya 1 TV,
according to The Jerusalem Post.
“They have a right
to do what they consider appropriate,” he continued.
“I think it is
counterproductive, if it concerns lethal weapons, because it will only lead to
yet another swirl of confrontation, to more human casualties, but the result
will be the same,” Putin concluded.
Putin’s remarks
highlight growing global tensions between Jerusalem
and Moscow over
the international arms trade. Israel
previously criticized Russia ’s
decision Monday to lift a ban on sales of its S-300 anti-rocket missiles to Iran .
White House Press
Secretary Josh Earnest on Tuesday said the Obama administration had
“significant” concerns over Moscow ’s
maneuver. Israel believes Iran could use
the missile system to attack its citizens.
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