RT 19 continued the groundwork of transforming Ukraine’s armed forces into compliance with NATO standards for better integration.

The exercise, hosted by Ukraine since 2006, was held September 13 - 28 at the International Peace Keeping Center near Yavoriv.

He was accompanied by a team from his G9 division led by German Army Lt. Col. Tino Kohlmann and Ukrainian Army Lt. Col. Vasyl Pichnenko. The team, comprised of 16 LANDCOM officers and 23 Partner officers from seven nations, as well as 29 Ukrainian officers, conducted the evaluation of several Ukrainian units according to NATO standards.

Within minutes of arriving, Col. Akaltin found himself party to a press conference of journalists eager to know LANDCOM’s role in RT 19.

“LANDCOM contributes to NATO readiness by training and evaluating not only the NATO Response Force, but also forces from partner nations intent on participating in NATO missions, exercises and as aug-mentation to the NRF,” he said. He further explained how LANDCOM contributes to SHAPE’s Readiness Initiative, the Allied Military Reinforcement Concept and enablement of SACEUR’s area of responsibility.

Speaking specifically about Ukraine, Col. Akaltin went on. “LANDCOM, as the primary advocate in the Land Domain, knows the importance of partnership and capacity building for partners through supporting the reform of defence systems,” underscoring LANDCOM’s leading role in the standardisation of NATO land forces as well as partners land forces participating into the Operations Capabilities Concept (OCC) pro-gram.

During the exercise, the LANDCOM team evaluated a Ukrainian CBRN unit, Engineer company and Milita-ry police platoon.

To learn more about what LANDCOM can do for organizations under NATO’s Military Partnership pro-gram, visit:

 https://lc.nato.int/operations/military-partnership

Story by French Army Lt. Col. Benoit Deltour