Ukraine to host drills with US instructors in April

KIEV, April 17. /TASS/. US military instructors have arrived in Ukraine for Operation Fearless Guardian, an effort to train Ukraine's national guard force, US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt said on Friday.

"173rd Airborne troops arrive in Ukraine for Fearless Guardian," Pyatt wrote in his Twitter microblog.

Pyatt gave no further details on the number of the troops.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov earlier wrote on Facebook that 290 US paratroopers 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.

The agreement on the training mission was reached by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and US Vice President Joe Biden, Avakov said. Some 900 members of Ukraine’s national guard will participate in the exercises.