United States Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt have handed over border equipment to the Ukrainian border guards to secure the Ukrainian border.
The meeting focused on the status and prospects for security cooperation and the needed amount of aid from the U.S., as well as the situation in the east and south of Ukraine, the press service of the Ukrainian Border Service reported on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
Border guards have already received 45 pieces of equipment, including trucks, tractors, tank trucks, minibuses, including armored ones, cranes, and excavators. Furthermore, border guards have already been supplied with binoculars, thermal cameras, diesel generators and sleeping bags.
Apart from the $3 million worth of hardware already received, Ukraine continues buying autonomous life-sustaining systems for the State Border Service units, along with armored patrol vehicles, thermal cameras and engineering equipment worth another $12 million. Also part of its cooperation with the U.S. Department of State under the Export Control and Related Border security (EXBS) program, Ukraine is planning to buy special gear and border control systems worth $1.4 million. To date, Ukraine has already received 1,500 MultiCam camouflage kits, passport scanning devices, and border control devices.
As part of yet another joint international technical assistance project with the U.S. State Department, and given the current situation on the Ukrainian border, 36 armored off-road vehicles, 80 mobile thermal cameras and 2,300 bullet-proof vests and individual gear will be delivered to the State Border Service before the end of 2014. Total budget of this project is almost $10 million.
