KIEV (Sputnik) — The Ukrainian military will take part in the NATO exercises called Allied Shield in Poland, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday.
"Today, we discussed with [Polish] President [Andrzej Duda] the possibility of Ukraine participating in the Allied Shield drills, we gratefully accept this proposal," Poroshenko said at a joint briefing with Duda in Kiev.
Last year, Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania signed an agreement to establish a trilateral military brigade to operate under the auspices of the UN and the European Union. According to media reports, the first joint exercises of the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian military brigade will be held in February 2016.
Poroshenko also noted that Ukraine's involvement in the brigade was important in order to achieve interoperability of the Ukrainian army with the armies of NATO countries, which would strengthen regional security.
NATO has been increasing its presence in Eastern Europe since Crimea's reunification with Russia in March 2014, as the West has refused to recognize as legitimate the referendum held on the peninsula to determine its future and blamed Moscow for violating Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Russia has denied the allegations and has repeatedly stated that the bloc's increased activities near its borders undermine regional and international stability.
In June, the United States pledged to set up military training facilities in Eastern European countries, including Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, as well as Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, to facilitate the flexibility of NATO troops in the region.
