U.S. begins training Ukrainian guardsmen despite Russia's concerns

Ukrainian servicemen are seen after a welcome ceremony for first plane from United State with non-lethal aid including ten Humvee vehicles to Ukraine at Borispol airport near Kiev, March 25, 2015. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Army paratroopers began military training for small units of the Ukrainian national guard on Monday despite Russian warnings that the action could destabilise the country's tenuous cease-fire.

Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said 300 members of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, began long-planned training for about 300 Ukrainians at the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre at Yavoriv in western Ukraine near the Polish border.