Interfax-Ukraine
April 1, 2014
Rada approves hosting in Ukraine multi-national drills with EU, NATO partners in 2014
Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has passed a bill approving a Ukrainian presidential decision to allow the units of other countries’ armed forces to enter Ukraine in 2014 in order to participate in multi-national drills.
A total of 235 deputies voted for the draft law.
The law proposes establishing the number of participants in the exercises from the Ukrainian side at 2,500 people and the same number from other partner states, Acting Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval said at a plenary meeting before the vote.
“The main subject of the exercises is aimed at preparations for participation in international operations on maintaining peace and security, humanitarian and search operations on land and water, and protecting our country,” he said.
A member of the Economic Development parliamentary group, former Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk, in turn, said that the exercises would be conducted from May to November in southern Ukraine – in Mykolaiv region, in the Black Sea, as well as in the western regions – at the Yavoriv (Lviv region) and Uzhgorod firing grounds.
A respective bill was submitted by Verkhovna Rada Chairman and acting President Oleksandr Turchynov and registered on March 26 under No. 4561.
“To approve the Ukrainian president’s decision on admitting armed forces of other states to Ukrainian territory in 2014 for participating in Ukrainian-Polish exercises of aviation groups at the level of squadrons, the Law and Order 2014 Ukrainian-Polish exercises of military police units, the Rapid Trident 2014 Ukrainian-U.S. exercises, the Safe Skies 2014 Ukrainian-Polish exercises of aviation groups, the Sea Breeze 2014 Ukrainian-U.S. exercises, the Light Avalanche 2014 multinational exercises, the Carpathians 2014 multinational exercises of mountainous infantry units, and the South 2014 Ukrainian-Moldovan-Romanian exercise of mechanized units,” reads the document.
The law comes into force after adoption from the date of its publication.
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