EU defence ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday were tight-lipped about a plan to move some of the EU training operations inside Ukraine and train Ukrainian soldiers there.
Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans said the move has to be “a careful decision” and the risks and benefits weighed up by the European Union. “We are open to talk about this,” he added.
Andris Sprūds, minister for defence for Latvia, stressed the importance of such a plan to be a “collective decision” before the meeting of his EU counterparts.
Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said he was in favour of the idea, but top EU diplomat Josep Borrell said there was no EU agreement currently 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 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers in total by the end of the summer. EU defence ministers are to also debate the mission’s extension until 2026.
French President Emmanuel Macron, backed by Lithuania, signalled he is for training Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine. A number of EU countries including Germany are concerned about the move.
The meeting is an informal one, meaning the ministers are not expected to make any official decisions.
Also under discussion are conditions placed on Western weapons supplied to Ukraine preventing their use to strike targets inside Russia.
Pevkur said such restrictions on Ukraine are like fighting “only with one hand.” Borrell said fears that lifting such conditions would be like entering war with Russia were “ridiculous.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pushed hard on Thursday for the EU to speed up the deliveries of ammunition and air defence systems including Patriots.
The Netherlands promised to assemble quickly a Patriot system for Ukraine, but the Dutch defence minister declined to give a timeline for its delivery, citing security reasons.
Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson said the EU has learned its lesson from not being able to live up to its commitments to supply Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells within a year and is strengthening the production capacity of the bloc’s defence industry.
Also under discussion is the EU’s military mission Aspides to protect merchant shipping in the Red Sea from attacks by Houthi militants in Yemen.
The Iranian-aligned militants are trying to force an end to the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip by attacking commercial cargo vessels in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
UN Under Secretary General Jean-Pierre Lacroix and NATO Assistant Secretary General Angus Lapsley are set to attend the meeting.
