Representatives of the seven partner countries visited The International Interagency Multidisciplinary Training Center (IIMTC) of the NGU to familiarize with the functions and tasks of the National Guard of Ukraine and its role in the security and defense sector and to assess the capacity of the International Centre to conduct multinational exercises.
At the beginning of the meeting, on behalf of the NGU Command, the Deputy Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine thanked the international partners for the support of Ukraine and, in particular, the National Guard of Ukraine during difficult times of armed aggression against our state.
Besides, he informed that on the initiative of the NGU, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has initiated a question to the Minister of Defence of Ukraine about the inclusion of the NGU International Center as a separate location for conducting the Ukrainian-American exercises «Rapid Trident – 2021».
Since 2015, the National Guard has been joining the main international exercises, including the large-scale Ukrainian-American training on the territory of Ukraine – «Rapid Trident».
Taking into account the current trends of hybrid warfare and experience in the fight against armed aggression, the National Guard of Ukraine is convinced that the joining of the International Training Center of NGU and the use of the Guard's combat experience is a unique opportunity to expand the scope of the exercise with the involvement of all components of the security and defense sector, to work out issues of interdepartmental interaction and management in various scenarios of the use of defense forces, which will facilitate the qualitative preparation of Ukraine's security forces for a comprehensive counteraction to hybrid threats.
An equally important factor is the features of the relief and the unique geographic location of the Center, which allows practicing various types of combat and a wide range of military equipment and weapons for maneuvering in all-terrain conditions.
According to Colonel Volodymyr Grabchak, head of the International Cooperation Department of the National Guard HQ, the use of the NGU International Training Centre in multinational exercises will increase the involvement of the security and defense forces in the integrated training process and diversify the training scenarios. This, in turn, will contribute to achieving the necessary compatibility between the components of Ukraine’s security and defense sector and the relevant structures of the Alliance states in dealing with contemporary hybrid threats.
The representatives of the partner countries supported the NGU proposal to designate the International Training Centre of the National Guard as an additional location for conducting multinational exercises, as this will allow for a diversity of the conditions of the exercise and bring it as close as possible to actual combat conditions.
«The one who moves forward becomes inaccessible, – noted Lieutenant-General Yurii Lebed, the Deputy Commander of the NGU. – We must constantly assess the risks that exist in the world and respond to them rapidly and innovatively. Since 2014, many non-standard decisions have been taken which have led to fairly positive results. Therefore, today we offer an alternative approach to conducting exercises because we have to move forward only!»
Sources: NGU press service
