The ground and air maneuvers included 350 troops from Ukraine, a country which has been eyeing membership in the Atlantic Alliance but is struggling to finance the necessary military reforms.

Equipped with 10 tanks and rescue helicopters, the war games are due to last until July 22 near the western village of Yavoriv.

The Partnership for Peace program was launched in 1994 as a mechanism for building trust between NATO states and countries that had been part of the Soviet-era Warsaw Pact.

Ukraine joined the program in 1997.

WAR.WIRE