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Russia alarmed over NATO’s training Ukrainian troops

According to Russia's NATO envoy, the NATO-trained units later take part in shelling and clashes in Donbass

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Russia is alarmed over participation of NATO-trained Ukrainian troops in the operation in Donbass, Russian Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko said on Monday.

"Many [NATO] countries have rather serious assistance programs. First of all, their instructors train the Ukrainian army," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel. "We are alarmed over the fact that these armed units are later pulled to the line of contact and take part in shelling and clashes. It is a dangerous situation."

He noted that the existing program of NATO-Ukraine cooperation was supplemented at the recent NATO summit in Warsaw with another trust fund on assistance to demining. "What matters most is not the scale of such military and military technical cooperation but NATO’s encouraging gestures in the interests in the party of war in Kiev," Grushko said.

At the same time, he said the summit’s political statements in support of Ukraine are of minor significance. "The language of statements on Ukraine and Russia is a mind exercise that has no impact on the actual Minsk process," he said. "There are absolutely clear formats: the Normandy Four format, the Trilateral Contact Group, the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Whereas this sort of politicized texts have zero influence."