In an interview with the Ukrainian news outlet TSN, former US Charge d'Affaires in Ukraine William Taylor specifically praised increasing cooperation between American servicemen and their Ukrainian counterparts.
"It is very important that the American army works closely with and learns from the Armed Forces of Ukraine when it comes to Russian tactics”, Taylor said.
He added that “catching how Russians fight” is also of paramount significance to the US. At the same time, he expressed hope that the US would never combat Russia.
Kiev has repeatedly accused Moscow of interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs, describing Russia as an “aggressor country”.
The Kremlin rejects what it slams as unacceptable allegations, pointing to the fact that Russia it is not a side of the Ukraine conflict.
Ukraine Conflict Persists
Relations between Russia and Ukraine significantly deteriorated in 2014, when Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast following local residents’ refusal to recognise the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.
This was followed by the residents voting for the creation of the independent Donetsk (DNR) and Lugansk (LNR) People's Republics.
In February 2015, the warring sides reached a peace agreement after talks which were brokered by the Presidents of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine — the so-called Normandy Four — in the Belarusian capital Minsk.
The agreement envisages a full-blown ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the DNR and the LNR. However, the ceasefire regime has repeatedly been violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.
As for Taylor’s interview, it comes almost a month after the Normandy Four summit in Paris, during which the sides adopted a communique in which they confirmed their commitment to the full implementation of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
The communique underscored that the Minsk peace agreements on eastern Ukraine’s Donbass settlement continue to be the basis for the work of the Normandy Four.