The European Union plans to train Ukrainian soldiers

by time news

The European Union is preparing to go one step further in the support it offers to Ukraine to deal with the Russian invasion. At the end of February, the Twenty-Seven had already broken a taboo, by accepting that the Union, born on the ashes of the Second World War, finances the sending of lethal material. After six months of conflict, at the bend of a council of defense ministers next Monday in Prague, they should validate a training plan to support the Ukrainian army. The latter is facing regeneration difficulties, while kyiv recognizes the death of 9,000 of its “hero”.

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“A war that lasts and looks like it will last requires an effort not only in the supply of equipment, but also in training and assistance in the organization of the army”, explained the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, a week before the meeting. The device would be added to the initiative of the United Kingdom to train 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Between June and mid-August, London has already supported 2,300 of them.

The EU has almost twenty years’ experience in military training. The first operation dates from 2003 in the Balkans, followed by around thirty, most of them in Africa (European Union Training Mission in Mali, Somalia, CAR and Mozambique). Seventeen of these missions are ongoing, but none of them are involved in an ongoing conflict or in the direct neighborhood of the EU. These operations were above all launched with a view to rebuilding the State, as provided for in the Franco-British agreements of Saint-Malo (1998), the Treaty of Nice (2001) and then the Treaty of Lisbon (2007).

Prudence

Brussels is walking on eggshells. “Since February 24, the EU has been toying with this fragile line of helping Ukraine without being considered co-belligerent by Russia, nor taking the risk of a third world war”, recalls Samuel Faure, lecturer at Sciences Po Saint-Germain and expert in defense policies in Europe. Last October, while the Kremlin was amassing troops on the border, Brussels was already considering a training mission in Ukraine for officers. Today, there is no longer any question of dispensing them in the field. The mission will be carried out from neighboring countries, to limit the risk of entanglement.

The issue of cohesion

Few details have leaked on the content of the device or on the personnel that each Member State would be ready to mobilize. The Europeans are already training the Ukrainians in the equipment delivered, like France for the handling of the Caesar artillery system, but in a disparate way. The needs for consistency are glaring, assures Michel Duclos, expert at the Institut Montaigne. “Ukraine has received many different weapons, probably too many, it must not be so easy to manage this diversity”, explains the specialist. One of the objectives of the training could be to master the material already sent within the framework of the European Peace Facility (EPF). The training could also be aimed at new hires, assures expert Federico Santopinto: “Italy, France, Germany have the resources to train a foreign soldier from A to Z.”

It remains to be seen how this mission will be articulated with NATO, which also trains Ukrainian soldiers. The Europeans, already in disagreement on the level of sanction to impose on Russia, do not need a new reason for discord. “The initiative is politically strong. The EU must show itself capable of showing solidarity with the Baltics and the countries of Central Europe, in search of a firmer attitude vis-à-vis Moscow,” indicates Jean-Pierre Maulny, deputy director of the Institute of international and strategic relations (Iris).

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