UK minister of armed forces arriving in Ukraine - embassy
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax) - UK Minister of the Armed Forces Mark Lancaster is beginning his visit to Ukraine on Thursday, August 31, the UK embassy in Kyiv said.
"Today UK Minister of the Armed Forces Mark Lancaster is visiting Ukraine, meeting UK and Ukrainian troops training together as part of Op Orbital," the embassy said on its Twitter page on Thursday.
It was reported that the 93rd Kharkiv separate guard mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is participating in Operation Orbital, which is being conducted as part of cooperation between the Ukrainian and UK defense agencies. UK army instructors, most of whom took part in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, are training personnel of the 93rd brigade in defensive techniques in line with modern NATO requirements.
Operation Orbital commander UK Army Col. Sean Walker said that UK instructors had trained around 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers and officers since the operation began in 2015. He expressed confidence that such training programs would help Ukrainian servicemen fight even better.