Ukraine’s armed forces announced plans to conduct joint training exercises with its NATO allies on Saturday, as concern over movements of Russian troops on the smaller nation’s border increases.
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, will aim to support the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine in the face of “the aggression of one of the hostile neighboring countries “, presumably Russia.
The announcement came less than a day after President Biden, in his first official phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, promised his “unshakable support” for Ukraine, and when US defense officials said a growing concern about an apparent build-up of Russian military force in Crimea.
The new violence in the Donbass, where fighting has erupted since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, has raised tensions among neighboring nations.
“We discussed the situation in Donbass in detail,” Zelensky said Friday. “President Biden assured me that Ukraine will never be left alone against Russia’s aggression.”
