V4 invites Ukraine to set up joint military unit

KYIV, June 4 /Ukrinform/. Ukraine can join the Visegrad Battlegroup military unit, which in 2016 will be set up by the armies of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic).

Visegrad Group defence ministers made the decision at a meeting on Tuesday before the formal meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, the Slovak TASR news agency reported.

"We could discuss more forms of cooperation, not only Ukraine's participation in the military unit of the Visegrad Group, what we have agreed on," Slovakian Defence Minister Martin Glvac told reporters.

For his part, Hungarian Defence Minister Csaba Hende said that they have already discussed with Ukraine the forms of its involvement in the military formation. Ukraine, in particular, proposed to provide the unit with Ukrainian helicopters and use its strategic air transport capacity.

As Ukrinform reported, the Visegrad Battlegroup as an independent military unit to conduct joint military operations is planned to be formed in the first half of 2016. The military unit would be one of the forms of modernization of the allied armed forces of the group. Poland will exercise a joint command over the unit.

АМ