The United States is going to train 750 Ukrainian troops, the White House announced on Wednesday. The decision was apparently made after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had had a telephonic conversation with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Russia is celebrating the first anniversary of the annexation of Crimea which took place in March 2014. In the meantime, Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said that the 173rd Airborne Brigade soldiers based in Vicenza would conduct the National Guard training mission at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center. The training will take place in Yavoriv near the border with Poland in western Ukraine.

According to Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren, the 173rd Airborne Brigade will train 750 Ukrainian soldiers with 290 U.S. paratroopers in the latter part of April. The United States earlier had plans to deploy a bigger number of soldiers in Ukraine. However, the plan was put on hold as it was suspected that Russian President Vladimir Putin would get antagonised by the move.

Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday that Russia should fulfil all of its obligations under the 2008 ceasefire agreement. The U.S. State Department spokeswoman asked Russia to “withdraw its forces to pre-conflict positions and reverse its recognition of the Georgian regions of South Ossetia.”

The exact date of the training has not been finalised yet. It was supposed to begin in mid-March. However, it was delayed after the mission had been put under review. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the head of U.S. Army troops in Europe, earlier said that authorities had not wanted to give Russia a reason to back out of a peace agreement due to the mission. The peace deal was supposed to take place pro-Russian separatists and Ukraine.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said that his country was not optimistic about Russia and the separatists respecting the peace deal. Yatseniuk spoke as the Ukrainian military reportedly suffered new casualties from rebel attacks on Wednesday.

Putin said on Wednesday that he still thought Ukraine and Russia were one nation. The Russian president told so to tens of thousands of supporters in Moscow on Wednesday.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au

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