PM says Mission Fearless Guardian to be new tactics, new equipment and new spirit of Ukrainian army

On Wednesday, June 3, Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk has visited the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre of Western Operational Command of the Land Forces of Ukraine in Yavoriv, Lviv region, where there are trainings of soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine in the framework of the mission Fearless Guardian-2015 - Ukrainian-American joint military exercises.

The Prime Minister toured the town and visited an exercise of National Guard soldiers "Actions in identifying drones, sniper struggle" and "Actions in the defense organization and operations of the units’ protection."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has also taken cognizance of unmanned aircraft used by the National Guard units – domestic drones "Fury" and aircraft based on Lockheed Martin equipment.

He has expressed gratitude to the US Government, the Government of Canada and the UK and certain EU Member States for their assistance in training Ukrainian soldiers "so as they meet the best NATO standards."

"This is a new tactics, new equipment and utterly new spirit of the Ukrainian army," the Prime Minister said.

He has noted that during the talks with U.S. military instructors who train National Guard soldiers under the mission Fearless Guardian-2015 they highly assessed the level of Ukrainian soldiers, "as they quickly learn, quickly demonstrate very good performance."

Also, according to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the instructors from the U.S. "said they also learnt a lot from our guys, especially, from those who have already been in the combat zone."

Following the results of these trainings, the Prime Minister stressed, "we will get not only a strong army and a strong National Guard, but we will get strong personalities who will be able to lead soldiers with team spirit, with Ukrainian spirit and able to win."

The Prime Minister has noted that in mid-August Ukraine will host trainers from the Ministry of Defence of Canada, and exercises will begin in September. Instructors from the United Kingdom have already joined the Fearless Guardian: «We are hopeful that other EU countries will also join this significant mission, because this mission aims to maintaining security in Europe."

"We are defending Ukraine and we are defending European borders," Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated.