The European Union will train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers on EU territory and has earmarked a further €500 million to support arms supplies to Kiev. The EU has thus made a total of 3.1 billion available to compensate Member States – partly – for weapons they supply to Ukraine.
This was decided by the European foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. The Ukrainian soldiers will receive their training mainly in Poland and Germany. The mission will initially last two years and EU Foreign Affairs chief Josep Borrell hopes the training mission will be operational as early as the middle of next month.
skepticism
Originally, there was considerable skepticism about an EU mission among member states, partly because a number of countries were already training soldiers themselves and because the EU is thus drawn even further into the conflict. Over time, the criticism died down, partly because of the increasingly violent Russian attacks, according to Borrell.
The EU is still looking for evidence that it is indeed Iran that supplied kamikaze drones to Russia and used them for attacks on Kiev on Monday morning. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Koeleba addressed the European ministers via video link from an air raid shelter. If it is unequivocally established that Iran supplied the weapons, then the EU will take action against Tehran.
On Monday, 11 Iranian officials and four Iranian institutions were placed on a sanctions list in retaliation for Iran’s repressive measures against protesters after the death of 22-year-old Masha Amini. The woman died after she was arrested for not covering her head.