EU agrees to launch joint military mission to train Ukraine’s army

The defense ministers of the European Union reached a political agreement on Tuesday to launch a training and training military mission of the Ukrainian army in the belief that the war of invasion unleashed by Russia is going to last “quite a long time”.

The training will not be held on the Ukrainian territory itselfbut in neighboring countries. But the rest of the parameters of the mission (number of troops, participating Member States or their specific task) have not yet been agreed, but military experts are tasked with defining them in the coming days.

“Ukraine also needs to regenerate its forces. It is not just about military material, but about how the war is conducted and the training of soldiers and the military structure”, explained the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, at the end of the informal meeting held in Prague.

[La división entre los países de la UE frena un veto total a los turistas rusos]

“There are already many training initiatives underway, but the needs are enormous and we must ensure the coherence of these efforts. All Member States agree on that and on launching the necessary work to define the parameters of an EU military assistance mission for Ukraine“, has announced.

A mission that, as he has said, responds to the demands of the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, which has been connected by videoconference to the meeting in Prague. Borrell has not wanted to set deadlines, but has assured that the intention of the ministers is to be “fast and ambitious” and provide “added value”.

This military mission was proposed by Poland and the Balts before the outbreak of the war, but at the time Germany opposed it for fear of provoking Russia. The head of European diplomacy now rules out that its launch will trigger a new escalation of tension with the Kremlin.

“It is clear that Russia will not be happy. They are not happy with the idea that we are providing (Ukraine) all kinds of military equipment. And we will continue to do so. How can we supply military equipment and not military training? What’s the difference between the two things?” says Borrell.

Currently there are already many Ukrainian soldiers being trained in Poland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, France, especially to handle weapons supplied by European countries. But the head of community diplomacy maintains that an EU mission could provide added value on issues such as high-level training, logistics or military medical organization or protection against nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

“These are not issues that can be resolved overnight. But we have to lay the foundations for an army that will have to fight for quite some time,” says Borrell.

All member states are ready to continue supporting Ukraine “as long as necessary” so that “its soldiers continue the fight against the Russian invader”. In this sense, the head of EU diplomacy assures that the shipment of weapons has not stopped during the summer and will continue in the coming months.