Hundreds of foreign soldiers coming to Slovakia for training

SEVERAL hundred foreign soldiers – mainly from the United States, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Austria – are due to come to Slovakia for training in the first half of 2015 in a series of more than 30 exercises.

One of the previous exercises at Lešť.One of the previous exercises at Lešť. (Source: Sme)

Up to 110 soldiers from US special forces will undergo trainings in Žilina, Kamenica nad Cirochou in east of Slovakia, and at Lešť Training Centre in central Slovakia between February 24 and March 15, according to a proposal approved by the government at its meeting on February 18.

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As many as 500 US soldiers will come to Slovakia in March to perform a military exercise in a built-up area at Lešť. Polish soldiers will also be trained in an urban zone, the TASR newswire wrote. Czech soldiers will simulate responses to natural disasters and cooperation in air operations, while military chemists and Hungarian military scuba divers will also come to Slovakia.

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Conversely, Slovak soldiers will participate in many training courses abroad in the first half of 2015, mainly in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Joint military training of combat engineers and units preparing for the ALTHEA operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina will take place, too. Military pilots will go to Poland in May.

The next event will be a big military training at the turn of February and March when soldiers from the United States and other countries will exercise in Kamenica nad Cirochou, only a few kilometres from the Slovak border with Ukraine.

Czech security expert Andor Sándor said for the Hospodárske noviny daily that it is obvious that the training is NATO’s reaction to the Ukrainian conflict. It is a kind of demonstration of force and resolution of the Alliance, according to him. The Slovak Defence Ministry failed to confirm that the military exercises have a direct association with the conflict in Ukraine.

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