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 …read more
Source: Voice of America
