TOLEDO (dpa-AFX) – According to EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell, the foreign ministers of the EU countries support plans to expand the European training mission for the Ukrainian armed forces. Ministers backed his proposal to set a new target of training 40,000 soldiers, Borrell said Thursday after EU consultations in Toledo, Spain. The currently valid target of 30,000 trained Ukrainian soldiers by the end of the year will be reached by the end of October, according to information on Wednesday.
The EU training mission was approved by the foreign ministers of the member states last November. At that time it was said that up to 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers should first be trained in Germany, Poland and other EU countries. The goal was later raised to 30,000.
With the mission, the EU wants to help ensure that the Ukrainian troops can defend themselves even better than before against the attackers from Russia.
The armed forces trains Ukrainian armed forces in the Patriot air defense system, the Panzerhaubitze 2000, the Marder infantry fighting vehicle and the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 battle tanks, among other things. There are also training courses in military leadership and in the medical field. According to the Bundeswehr, an average of around 1,500 members of the Bundeswehr were recently involved in the mission. They were therefore used as trainers, but also in supplying the Ukrainian forces and as language mediators./aha/DP/jha