A BIZARRE Nato military parade across eastern Europe is giving troops valuable practice, the alliance’s supreme European commander General Philip Breedlove declared yesterday.

Huge numbers of US troops based in Germany began the tour, dubbed the Dragoon Ride, last week, starting in Estonia and travelling through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Gen Breedlove said in Bucharest that his troops had been able to test their ability to make “multiple border crossings” and find out “which bridges are capable of handling the vehicles.”

The exercise, which saw soldiers take part in a mock operation dubbed Atlantic Resolve, was a show of force criticised as a blatant provocation of Russia.

The general was in Romania to discuss planned missile defence bases, which are due to become operational this year and are likely to further enrage Moscow as evidence that it is being surrounded by hostile military bases.

Washington announced that it would send soldiers to Ukraine as the convoy did the rounds — with Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov saying that troops due to arrive in April would train “units of the national guard.”

In a Facebook post on Sunday he specifically named the most notorious such group, the neonazi Azov battalion, as being among those selected for special training by the US.

The reaction to the US convoy’s passage has been mixed, with some crowds in the Baltic states and Poland cheering on the soldiers.

They received a more hostile reception in the Czech Republic, where the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia organised rallies objecting to the warmongering stunt and the government was forced to issue a special announcement warning that anyone caught throwing vegetables or eggs at the troops would face up to three years behind bars.

Retired Czech Lieutenant-General Marek Obrtel handed the army an open letter saying he hoped the convoy was in honour of the millions of Soviet and hundreds of thousands of US and British troops who died to defeat nazi Germany 70 years ago, but pointing out that most Czech citizens “saw rather a show of force and a reminder of ‘who’s boss’.”