US-led military exercises involving 1,300 troops from 15 countries started on Monday in northwestern Ukraine.

The drill dubbed Rapid Trident-2014 will be conducted until 26 September near Yavoriv, some 60 kilometers from the city of Lviv, near the border with Poland, as Kiev government forces continue to fight pro- Russian rebels in the country’s restive eastern regions.

The exercise will consist of a multinational field training exercise, in preparation for which units will undergo one week of situational training exercises that focus on key tasks such as countering improvised explosive devices, convoy operations and patrolling, the US European Command has said.

There are no live fire exercises scheduled for Rapid Trident 14. Countries taking part in the exercise are Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, and the United States, as well as NATO representatives.

In a show of solidarity with the government in Kiev, the US was expected to send around 200 troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Italy, to take part in the war games. Ukraine has taken part in similar exercises since 2006 under its “Partnership for Peace” programme with NATO.

On Sunday, heavy fighting was reported around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine in violation of a fragile truce between government troops and separatist fighters signed on 5 September. Sustained artillery shelling and automatic gunfire rang out all day long, witnesses said.

Also on Sunday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Valery Heletey said that some NATO countries had already started shipping arms to the country as part of an agreement reached at the alliance’s recent summit in Wales.

Heletey told reporters “the process of delivering arms is being realised” but didn’t disclose with which NATO countries the government in Kiev had struck a deal to send arms.

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