EU defence ministers remained tight-lipped in Brussels on Friday over a plan to move some of the EU’s training operations to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers.
Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans said the move should be “a careful decision” and that the risks and benefits should be weighed by the European Union. “We are open to discuss this,” he added.
Andris Sprūds, Latvia’s Minister of Defence, stressed the importance of such a plan being a “collective decision” before the meeting of his EU colleagues.
Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said he supported the idea, but senior EU diplomat Josep Borrell said there was currently no EU agreement to train Ukrainian soldiers on Ukrainian soil.
Currently, training is taking place in Germany and Poland. The training mission started in November 2022. So far, 52,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained, according to EU figures from May.
The EU wants to train a total of 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers by the end of the summer. EU defence ministers will also debate extending the mission until 2026.
French President Emmanuel Macron, backed by Lithuania, has indicated he is in favor of training Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine. A number of EU countries, including Germany, are concerned about the move.
The meeting is informal in nature, meaning that ministers are not expected to make official decisions.
Conditions are also being imposed on the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine so that they cannot be used to attack targets in Russia.
Pevkur said such restrictions for Ukraine were like fighting “with only one hand.” Borrell said the fear that lifting such conditions would be like going to war with Russia was “ridiculous.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday strongly urged the EU to accelerate the delivery of ammunition and air defense systems, including Patriots.
The Netherlands promised to quickly build a Patriot system for Ukraine, but the Dutch defense minister declined to give a timetable for its delivery, citing security reasons.
Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson said the EU had learned its lesson from failing to meet its pledges to supply Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells within a year and was strengthening the production capacity of the bloc’s defence industry.
The EU military mission Aspides is also being discussed. This mission is intended to protect merchant ships in the Red Sea from attacks by Houthi militants in Yemen.
The militants linked to Iran are trying to end the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip by attacking commercial cargo ships in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
UN Under-Secretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix and NATO Assistant Secretary-General Angus Lapsley will attend the meeting.
