WASHINGTON, May 7 (RIA Novosti) – The US Department of Defense has confessed to providing Ukrainian border guards and the regular army with US-funded equipment.
“To date, using Cooperative Threat Reduction funds, Embassy Kiev has purchased and delivered fuel pumps, concertina wire, vehicle batteries, spare parts, binoculars [and] communications gear [for] the Ukrainian border guards for use in monitoring and securing their borders,” US Army Col. Steven Warren said late Tuesday at a Pentagon press conference.
The DOD confirmed on its official webpage that the funds for the locally purchased equipment effectively stemmed from the US coffers. “Ukraine’s border guard has received a large percentage of the US-funded equipment it requested,” the message said.
Col. Warren also emphasized that the US aid came as both equipment for Ukraine’s border guards and supplies for its regular armed forces.
Moscow has been critical of the West’s involvement in the Ukrainian crisis on the side of the country’s self-styled interim government, with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs voicing concerns about the buildup of foreign forces in Ukraine, including a group of well-trained US mercenaries.
Last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had reports that some 150 agents from the Greystone military firm were implicated in a crackdown on protesters in eastern Ukraine. Greystone later denied these reports.
