Special tactical exercises have been planned in Kyiv for the night of April 30 to May 1 Columns of military equipment will move in city as part of the exercise. Please be informed that the deployment of personnel and equipment will start in the city center, said the press service of Kyiv City State Administration.
As previously reported, Acting President Oleksander Turchynov said the Armed Forces of Ukraine are on full combat alert in response to the threat of a Russian attack.
Ukraine has started forming territorial defense units
Earlier today, Turchynov ordered the creation of territorial defense units (battalions) in every region of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense will form territorial defense units in all regions of Ukraine to protect national borders and strategic sites, as well as to support public administrations.
“The mobilized parts have already been sent to training centers to pass military training, where they are refreshing their skills, performing training exercises in fire training, driving combat vehicles, engaging in topographic, engineering, and other kinds of military training, learning their responsibilities,” reported the press service of the Ministry of Defense on April 30, 2014.
Measures directed at manning [of military units] are held in accordance with the law ‘On partial mobilization’ and the Presidential decree ‘On Approval of the territorial defense of Ukraine.’ Authority to create military units has been granted to the Regional Military Commissariats.
The work of Regional Military Commissariats to supply the units with logistical means, weapons, and military equipment continues.
Sergei Pashinsky, acting Presidential Administration Head, stated that seven territorial defense battalions have been formed on the left bank of Ukraine. Additional mobilization has also been announced.
The Acting Presidential Administration Head also said that 27 additional special operations police battalions are in process of forming in Ukraine, including five special operations police battalions in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions numbering up to 3000 people.
In response to a journalist’s question on clarifying the difference between territorial defense battalions and the National Guard, Pashinsky explained: “Territorial defense battalions are based out of the Ministry of Defense, and they follow the orders of the General Staff and the heads of the regional state administrations where these battalions deployed.
“The National Guard … it’s a law enforcement agency with a variety of functions, including military ones. They have different tasks and legally different functions. We mobilize the National Guard to conduct counter-terrorism operations, and we mobilize territorial defense to prevent provocations from the Russian Federation.”
Complied and translated by Dr. Vitalii Usenko, MD, MBA, expert of the Center of Military-Political Studies in the sphere of psychology of communications, and by Dmytro Usenko, student at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Sources:
Zerkalo Nedeli
http://zn.ua/UKRAINE/v-kieve-v-noch-na-1-maya-proydut-voennye-ucheniya-144249_.html
http://zn.ua/UKRAINE/v-ukraine-formiruyutsya-batalony-territorialnoy-oborony-144240_.html
UNIAN
