There are around 75 British military trainers now in the Ukraine and they have trained over 1,000 soldiers to fight the Moscow-backed separatists.
Advertisement
“I am setting the British army a new target to train over two thousand members of the Ukrainian military by the end of this financial year”.
Fallon said he had come to Ukraine to reaffirm the UK authorities’ support for Ukraine and their respect for the country’s territorial integrity and state borders. This is not a frozen conflict, it’s still red hot’.
Michael Fallon said there was no end in sight to the conflict on Europe’s doorstep, which has already claimed almost 7,000 lives as he indicated the UK’s commitment to helping Kiev defeat “Russian-inspired terrorism” could carry on for years.
“We call on the Ukrainian side to show restraint and not violate the implementation of the Minsk agreements on security with irresponsible actions”, the statement said, referring to the ceasefire deal agreed in the Belarusian capital in February. So this is not a frozen conflict and we are not going to turn our back on Ukraine.
‘We are standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine while its borders are still threatened.
He said as long as Russian Federation keeps heavy weapons in the Donbass region and significant numbers of troops, “you can’t rule out this continuing threat to Ukraine’s eastern border”.
Ukrainian military specialists are expected to receive training in four areas in order to be able to conduct effective mine-clearing operations, operations in a residential area, perform operational planning and provide engineering support, he said.
Advertisement
The move will build on an existing programme of medical, infantry, logistics and tactical intelligence training which has so far been successfully provided to around 1000 Ukrainian troops since March, and is designed to increase the resilience of Ukrainian forces and reduce casualties. “There is nothing provocative about this”.
