U.S., Kyiv launch joint training exercises:
U.S. and Ukrainian troops have begun joint training exercises in Western Ukraine in a bid to strengthen government forces that are fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said at the exercise's inauguration ceremony on April 20 that Ukraine's armed forces must be rebuilt from scratch to deter foreign threats.
The U.S. Army announced last week that 300 U.S. paratroopers would train 900 members of a National Guard reserve unit that brings volunteers and pro-government militia under Kyiv's control.
The exercises are 1,000 kilometers from the fighting in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has criticized the exercises, saying they would destabilize a shaky peace process and were a "first step" toward the possible delivery of U.S. weapons to Ukraine.
President Barack Obama's administration has refrained from offering lethal military equipment to Ukraine but has provided Kyiv with $75 million in nonlethal aid. )AP, AFP, Reuters, Hotnews.ro, TASS)
Here is today's map of the military situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
TASS quotes Lavrov as expressing Russian opposition to a change in format for Ukraine peace talks:
Moscow is opposed to diluting the format of the Contact Group on Ukraine and attracting some outside experts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
"Right now, there are attempts to link the beginning of work of Contact Group subgroups to new requirements, which were never discussed with anyone, to attract to the work of these subgroups outside experts, moderators, representatives of international NGOs. We are opposed to diluting the Contact Group format," he said.
"Such format should be implemented in its working mechanisms, and we speak against deluging them with certain outside experts no one has ever heard about," Lavrov added.
Ukrainian journalist Oles Buzyna, who was gunned down last week in Kyiv, was laid to rest on Sunday in a funeral attended by several hundred mourners. Some of them chanted “murderers” and “fascists” -- comments aimed at the Ukrainian authorities, whom they accuse of orchestrating Buzyna’s killing because of his pro-Russian views. An adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has suggested that Russia may have ordered the killing for propaganda purposes. (Video by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
