Chief of the Defence Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Major General Vitalijus Vaikšnoras is conducting a visit to Ukraine. He has already attended ceremonies of amending the Memorandum of Understanding of the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania and the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, and for honouring soldiers of Ukraine, and is visiting Lithuanian troops deployed to Ukraine.
The protocol concerning the amended Memorandum of Understanding endorsed by the Ministries of Defence of Lithuania and Ukraine on training of Ukrainian soldiers establishes an indefinite duration of the MoU.
Maj Gen V. Vaikšnoras and his delegation visited Lithuanian soldiers taking part in the training operation in the training centres in Desna and Berdychiv - talked to them, familiarised with the course and achievements of training. In total, around 30 soldiers are taking part in Lithuania's military training operation in Ukraine - they are providing training in eight service locations in northern, southern, and western parts of Ukraine. Lithuanian soldiers are not involved in the combat actions taking place in Ukraine. The military training operation in Ukraine is designed to train the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Soldiers of Lithuania are training Ukraine's land force and special forces soldiers and units to operate in accordance with NATO standards on their own or in composition of multinational formats. Also, soldiers of the Lithuania Land Force and our allies from Canada are helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine to train its snipers.
Instructors of the Lithuanian Armed Forces are assisting Ukraine in training its soldier s of the land force, special forces and military police along with our allies and bilaterally on the basis of an agreement signed with Ukraine in August 2015. Lithuanian soldiers are not directly involved in combat actions and are not deployed to the area of the Anti-Terrorist Operation of Ukraine. The National Military Training Operation of Lithuania in Ukraine was established on 1 July 2017 with a Seimas mandate for deploying up to 60 soldiers to it. The operation is designed to train the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Also, a strategic-level Lithuanian advisor is delegated to the Defence Reform Advisory Group to the Minister of Defence o Ukraine, an advisor on NCO system development has been working at the NATO Liaison Office for the third year now and an advisor on officer training reform who was appointed in February this year.
Photo credits: Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
PAO for the Defence Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Maj Tomas Balkus
+370 5 219 6401, +370 686 28035, tomas.balkus@mil.lt
