LVOV, Ukraine, May 19 (AVN) - The second half of the month will see a boost in the Ukrainian-American military contacts, Colonel Vladimir Tsymbal, head of the army aviation department of the western operative command told the Military News Agency Friday.
According to him, a visiting delegation of the US Air Force officers is currently observing the aviation equipment and the training organisation of the army aviation brigade pilots deployed in the town of Brody.
Another group of American engineering corps servicemen will start their training in the Yavorovo international peacekeeper training centre on Saturday, the colonel said.
Training airdrops of two American airborne platoons and a Ukrainian airborne company are to take place at the Khirov air-mobile regiment proving ground on May 22. The jumps are conducted within the frames of the preparation for a joint airdrop of American and Ukrainian units during the Peace Shield 2000 international peacekeeping exercise scheduled for July 8 - 22, 2000, Tsymbal stressed.
According to the Agency's source in the western operative command staff, on Thursday representatives of the Defence Ministry addressed the military attache of the American embassy asking to grant the Ukrainian party with USD380,000 necessary for financing the Peace Shield 2000 training. The attache replied the USA would be able to allocate only a smaller sum, the source claimed.
The US national guards are also participating in the joint civil-military medical training currently on in the Kharkov region under the Partnership for Peace NATO-sponsored programme. The exercise will train search and rescue missions, medical evacuation of population, as well as the interaction of military and civil formations in areas of emergency.