Kenneth Myers, Director of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), visited the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service (SBGS) in Kyiv today to oversee the transfer of 8 hydraulic telescopic excavators worth $1.9 million and to inspect other equipment that DTRA has transferred to the Border Guards. The excavators will be used to build defensive security earthworks on Ukraine’s borders.
Since April 2014, DTRA has provided nearly $40 million worth of operations equipment and training to help the Border Guard Service respond quickly to emerging border threats and to secure Ukraine’s borders, including in areas where little or no border security or infrastructure previously existed. This has been critical in the face of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and its ongoing destabilizing activities in eastern Ukraine. The equipment DTRA has given to the SBGS has also allowed it to respond to WMD threats in eastern Ukraine as well as incidents of trafficking of chemical and explosive materials at the Crimean Administrative Boundary.
