US Troops Begin Training Ukrainian Forces

Members of the United States military arrived in Ukraine to begin a training mission with the goal of helping to bolster beleaguered Ukrainian forces fighting a civil war against Russian-backed separatists.

Reuters reports that 300 US paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade have begun training small units of the Ukrainian national guard. The US troops are based in Vincenza, Italy. The training will cover a variety of topics and be available to 900 national guardsmen.

The guardsmen will be trained in 3 groups of 300, and the course will last three months. The topics covered in the training include medical care, evacuation of the injured, and shooting and moving effectively in small groups. The Ukrainians will also be trained in dismantling improvised explosive devices.

Russia has argued that the presence of US troops is an escalation of the conflict. The US denies this and says Russia is the one escalating the situation by using regular Russian forces to back up the rebel fighters.

The fighting in Ukraine has so far claimed around 6,000 lives.

A separate Reuters report says that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the most recent ceasefire was more effective than the last, and fighting in eastern Ukraine has abated.

The first ceasefire agreed to by Russian and Ukrainian forces collapsed, forcing German and French diplomats to try to put together a second. The second has also been violated numerous times, but a Ukrainian official seemed to echo Lavrov's assertion about the fighting quieting down.

In addition to saying the fighting was slowing, Lavrov said Russia would seek to use its influence to try and continue the downward trend of violence.

Reuters reports that fighters on the ground expect heavy fighting to resume soon, but notes that observers of the conflict suspect the cool down will last until after May 9, when Russia holds a large military parade to commemorate World War II.