EU to discuss training mission for Ukrainian forces next week

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BRUSSELS – European Union defense ministers will discuss options for setting up a military training mission for Ukrainian forces at a meeting August 29-30 in Prague, the policy chief said on Wednesday. stranger to the block.

« As the EU, we have to see what else we can do in terms of supporting Ukraine and increasing the cost of this war for Russia, » Josep Borrell said in a blog post at occasion of Ukraine’s Independence Day, six months after Russia invaded the country.

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“We will discuss it… in Prague next week, notably on the question of visas for Russian citizens and a possible EU training mission for the Ukrainian armed forces.

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Borrell raised the idea of ​​an EU military training program at a conference in Spain on Monday, explaining that he would not be based in Ukraine, but in neighboring countries.

The 27 EU countries have launched more than 30 missions and operations over the past 20 years aimed at maintaining peace, preventing conflicts and strengthening international security outside its borders.

Seventeen are deployed around the world, including a recently established training mission in Mozambique.

Borrell said Ukrainian troops are already trained in Poland, the Czech Republic, Britain and France, including on weapons supplied by those countries to help in the war against Russia.

“It seems reasonable that a war that is going on and that seems to be lasting requires an effort not only in the supply of materiel, but also in training and helping the organization of the army,” he said. declared.

(Reporting by John Chalmers; Editing by Richard Chang)