US and Nato troops begin Ukraine military exercise

[jakeXT]

Source: BBC

About 1,300 troops from 15 countries - including the US and other Nato members - have begun a military exercise near Lviv in western Ukraine.

The US says the drill had been planned before the current crisis in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have been battling pro-Russian rebels

...


Some 200 US troops are taking part in the military exercise, codenamed Rapid Trident, near Lviv, on the Polish-Ukrainian border, some 1,000 km (600 miles) from the fighting in the east.

The exercise brings together troops from several Nato member states and from former Soviet-bloc countries that are part of Nato's Partnership for Peace programme.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29204505

[MrNJ]

1. I am sure Putin is trembling with fear

After all, we chose the furthest possible point from the actual fighting.

[uhnope]

2. Reread: "The US says the drill had been planned before the current crisis in eastern Ukraine"

[Igel]

5. That's one problem.

Reading.

The other is that while the US puts out a press release about such things, the media don't pick it up. For all the supposed militarization of American society and culture, when there are exercises and drills they only make the news if there's some other reason for it. Odd place, sensitive interpretation give to them, odd partners.

(Meanwhile if there are exercises in the middle of nowhere in Russia, if they're announced by the Kremlin the apparently non-militaristic, pacifist Russian press reports them proudly, including the all-important "who won" and what new military technology was used. Usually on the evening news and front pages of newspapers.)

[EEO]

3. They are running out of cool code names for these exercises.

[Monk06]

4. Should go as well as the NATO exercises in Georgia. No doubt they will be held in Donetsk

[Igel]

6. Ooh. Joint Russian-NATO military exercises.

Because that's one of the more serious ceasefire violations.

[Monk06]

7. One thing is for sure, NATO will be shirts, Putin will be skins. One more excuse to take his

shirt off LOL