Mutual cooperation and international support were discussed in the development and strengthening of the National Guard (NGU) at a meeting of representatives of the National Guard of Ukraine and the Defense Attache Office under the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine on Tuesday, the press service of the National Guard has reported.

"A meeting with the representatives of the Defense Attache Office under the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has been held today at the Main Directorate of the National Guard of Ukraine. The meeting was attended by a newly appointed officer of the Office's bilateral relations, where the parties discussed issues related to further work," the website of the National Guard said on Tuesday.

"Commander of the NGU, Colonel-General Yuriy Alerov noted that international assistance, including advisory assistance, plays an important role. NGU has been working closely with the National Guard of California for more than 25 years. Today, representatives of both law enforcement agencies are actively participating in the work of the National Guard subcommittee in the multinational joint coordinating committee, the platform where issues of assistance to Ukraine are resolved.

The commander also noted that the assistance of international partners, the United States, is very notable. It can be seen from the results of qualitative changes in the equipment and training of military personnel.

"During my visit to the United States in Washington, I had the opportunity to meet with Special Representative of the U.S. State Department on Ukraine Kurt Volker and tell him about the tasks and functions that the NGU fulfills as a component of the security and defense sector of our state, its role within the Joint Forces Operation, interaction with the Armed Forces. The development of cooperation of the National Guard of Ukraine with the National Guard of California was also discussed. The aggression on the part of the Russian Federation, the use of hybrid forms and methods of warfare, the arrival of the latest models of military equipment and armament forced the guard to change approaches to the training of personnel and units, to introduce the experience of military formations of the advanced countries of the world," added Alerov.

During the meeting, he stressed that the holding of Ukrainian-American exercises "Fearless Guardian-2015", which were conducted under the guidance of instructors of the U.S. Army in Europe, allowed the training of more than 600 NGU personnel and individual training instructors for the first-time.

The information also specifies that in the training center of the NGU (Zolochiv town), a battalion of training of instructors was created and training of instructors for the needs of NGU began. More than 400 instructors have been trained and are training personnel in various areas.

"Today, the issue of individual training of personnel in the NGU has been completely resolved, but there is a need for training brigade-and battalion-level units and staffs. And one of the aspects for ensuring that such capabilities are at a sufficient level is the development of the International Interdepartmental Multidisciplinary Training Center "Stare," it was reported.

In 2017, a training school for junior commanders (sergeants) was established at the Training Center of the NGU (Zolochiv), where a multilevel training of sergeants takes place, and there are deployed professional sergeant and officer corps in the military units of the NGU.

As a result of the meeting, the parties agreed to continue cooperation on issues that were voiced during the meeting. In order for this work to be effective, it is important to clearly understand the needs of the NGU. Therefore, this and subsequent meetings will contribute to this, Head of the Defense Attache Office under the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Colonel Robert Peters, said.