Ukrainian recruits listen to a British instructor talk about a Javelin anti-tank system during five weeks of combat training with British forces near Durrington, southern England October 11, 2022. DANIEL LEAL /AFP
Two weeks late, European Union (EU) member states are to set up a mission to assist in the training of Ukrainian soldiers, known as “EUMAM Ukraine”, during a Council of Union Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg on Monday, October 17. On August 30th in Prague, the 27 ministers undertook to launch this initiative. This time they can officially announce it to the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba, who was invited to participate in the council.
The goal is ambitious. Europe initially wants to train around 15,000 members of the Ukrainian defense forces on its territory. “Twelve thousand Ukrainians will be able to receive basic military training and 2,800 more specialized ones,” assures a European official. “This is an initial goal that can be pushed later,” said another diplomatic source in the European capital. With this proposal, the EU can better complement the education and training that the UK has been offering since June, with the help of a number of armies in Europe, including again Sweden, the Netherlands or Denmark.
“share costs”
“Today, many Member States offer training, but in slightly different ways. The mission will allow everyone’s efforts to be better coordinated by centralizing requests from Ukraine and offers from European countries. We will also pool costs and make logistics easier,” assures a European diplomat. Concretely, all volunteering countries, whether they already offer home training or want to offer it, will be able to do so under a single banner. And “if the mission is not technically launched until November, adds a Brussels source, military training is already underway.”
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This new tool was long awaited by EU High Representative Josep Borrell, whose services evoked the idea of a mission a few weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine erupted. On Monday, October 10, the EU’s chief diplomat also complained to all EU ambassadors: “Yes, we should have started it”, earlier in the year. “And now we’re going to do it fast – fast by European standards. That means two months. Unfortunately, the war is still ongoing, so our training mission will come in handy. »
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The mission will be managed from Brussels by the Military Planning and Conduct Branch, a body of the EU staff that already manages the training of certain African armies in Mozambique or Somalia. Two main operational centers are set up in Poland and Germany. Poland, the gateway to Ukraine, is already one of the mandatory border crossing points for arms handed over to the government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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