US to finance training of new police force in Odessa>>UKRAINE

The United States has allocated a total of $15 million for the creation of a new police force in Ukraine since the start of 2015

Odessa region Governor Mikheil Saakashvili (left) and US Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield (right)

© Andrey Malinovsky/TASS

ODESSA, July 21 /TASS/. The United States will allocate funds for training new police staff in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa and fighting corruption in the city police force under a memorandum signed by Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield and Odessa region Governor Mikheil Saakashvili on Tuesday.
"A special anti-corruption group will be formed in the Odessa region, while the US State Department will render assistance to its work via one of its agencies," Saakashvili told journalists. According to him, patrol officers have arrived in Odessa from California to help training local patrolmen.

William Brownfield said in turn that the United States had allocated a total of $15 million for the creation of a new police force in Ukraine since the start of 2015.
Earlier, Saakashvili said that the US government was financing the anti-corruption programme in the Odessa region. "There are no secrets here. The American government is financing our anti-corruption programmes. It is giving us technical support in the creation of a center for issuing documents for which previously Ukrainians had to pay bribes," Saakashvili stressed.
The governor also noted that the United States might also finance the creation of a new customs service in Odessa.