Sunday, October 03, 2021
War against separatists
EU is considering military training for Ukraine
Ukraine has been at war against separatists in the east of the country for seven years. Russia has annexed the Crimea. In an internal paper, the EU’s External Action Service is now in favor of training Ukrainian officers.
The European Union is examining an independent military training mission called “EU Military Advisory and Training Mission Ukraine” (EUATM). “A military mission would underline the visibility and commitment to the countries of the partnership,” says an internal working paper of the European External Action Service (EEAS), which is available to “Welt am Sonntag”.
In the document, the EEAS promises a training mission for Ukrainian officers. “Such a deployment would be an expression of solidarity with Ukraine in view of the ongoing military activities of the Russian Federation on the borders with Ukraine and in the illegally annexed Crimea,” the working paper quoted by the newspaper said.
Accordingly, the agency, led by EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell, mentions three other ways in which the EU could help improve the military capabilities of the Ukrainian army. This also includes expanding the advisory mission on reforming the civil security sector (EUAT Ukraine), which has been in existence since 2014. The responsible EU ambassadors recently discussed the EAD document for the first time in the “Political and Security Committee” (PSK), reports the newspaper.
Ukraine asked Borrell for help
In particular, the three Baltic EU countries as well as Poland, Romania and Slovakia pushed for an independent military training mission. They would be supported by Sweden and Finland. At the end of July, the Ukrainian foreign and defense ministers had already sent a confidential letter to Borrell asking for a military training mission from the EU. Ukraine is striving for closer ties to the West and hopes one day to be admitted to NATO. Russia sees this as a threat to its own security and has annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
Ukraine has been at war with Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country since 2014. To date, more than 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of supplying the separatists with soldiers and weapons, which Moscow rejects. 54 Ukrainian soldiers have died since the beginning of the year. In the whole of last year there were 50. The separatists have reported more than 30 killed fighters in their own ranks since the beginning of the year.
In April, Russia had around 100,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border, which led to fears of another major escalation. Moscow later announced a withdrawal.