Ukraine’s armed forces have announced plans to conduct joint training exercises with its NATO allies on Saturday, as concerns about Russian troop movements on the smaller country’s border grow.
More than 1,000 troops from at least five NATO member states will participate in the training later this year, The Hill reported.
The exercises, described on the Facebook page of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, are designed to support Ukraine’s ‘territorial integrity’ in the face of ‘aggression from one of its hostile neighbors’ – presumably Russia.
The announcement came less than a day after President Biden, in his first official phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, pledged his “unshakable support” to Ukraine – and when US defense officials expressed growing concern about an apparent increase in Russian military power in Crimea.
New violence in the Donbass, where fighting has flared up since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014, has increased tensions between neighboring countries.
“We have discussed the situation in Donbass in detail,” Zelensky said Friday. “President Biden assured me that Ukraine will never stand alone against Russia’s aggression.”
