30 Aug 2018 15:12

Multinational exercise Rapid Trident starts in Ukraine on September 3

KYIV. Aug 30 (Interfax) - The multinational military exercise Rapid Trident 2018 will open in the Lviv region on Monday, September 3, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said.

"On September 3, 2018, on the grounds of the International Peacekeeping and Security Center of the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Ground Forces Academy (Starychi village, Yavoriv district, Lviv region), Ukrainian Armed Forces troops and army units from foreign states will begin the biggest joint ground forces exercise in Ukraine," the General Staff said on Facebook on Thursday.

At the end of January this year Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko approved a plan for this year's military exercises (including Rapid Trident), which let the participating foreign troops into Ukraine in 2018.

The country's defense ministry said earlier that the scenario of the Ukrainian-U.S. exercise would involve countering hybrid threats and sharing the combat experience from fighting in Donbas with foreign counterparts.

The exercise is expected to involve over 2,000 Ukrainian troops, and soldiers and officers from ten NATO countries and Partnership for Peace participating countries, as well as members of the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade (LitPolUkrBrig) will also take part.