No consensus in EU on training mission in Ukraine – EU chief diplomat

There is still no consensus among EU member states on the possibility of relocating a training mission for the Ukrainian military to Ukraine, Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has said.

Source: Borrell at a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha in Kyiv on Saturday, 9 November, as reported by European Pravda

Quote: "About [...] the training mission to act in Ukrainian territory, yes, we still don’t have a consensus among member states in order to make this request fulfilled, but it doesn’t prevent the training mission from continuing doing [its work]," he said when asked whether European instructors could be sent to Ukraine in response to the involvement of North Korean troops in Russia's war against Ukraine.

Details: Borrell noted that the EU military training mission for Ukraine will have trained 75,000 Ukrainian soldiers by the end of the year.

"We try to train Ukrainian soldiers as close as possible to the Ukrainian border, but this is not per se a defensive mission [...] There's currently no consensus on doing that on Ukrainian territory. I cannot exclude that this will happen. But my job is to ensure the mission works and increase the number of Ukrainian soldiers being trained," the EU chief diplomat added.

Background: Yesterday the EU Council extended the mandate of the EU Military Assistance Mission for training Ukrainian soldiers for a further two years, with a budget allocation of over €400 million.

For reference: The EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) was established on 17 October 2022 with an initial mandate of two years. The mission is funded by the European Peace Facility.

Since then, about 63,000 Ukrainian troops have undergone various forms of training in EU countries, which is equivalent to staffing ten brigades.

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