LUXEMBOURG — The
EU on Monday stepped up its military support for Kyiv by launching a mission to
train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers and providing 500 million euros more for
weapons.
اضافة اعلان
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister
Dmytro Kuleba addressed a
meeting of his EU counterparts via video link from a shelter in Kyiv and urged
them to provide more air defenses and sanction Iran over drone supplies to
Russia after strikes pummeled the city.
“While Dmytro Kuleba addresses (us) from a bomb
shelter, we raise EU military assistance to 3.1 billion euros ($3 billion) and
launch the EU military training mission for Ukraine,” EU foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell tweeted from the meeting in Luxembourg.
“Russia’s latest indiscriminate attacks will not
shake our determination to support Ukraine, it will only reinforce it.”
After almost eight months of war,
Ukraine’s forces are making progress on the battlefield and Kyiv’s western backers are keen to
make sure its troops have the capacity to keep fighting.
Several EU nations — including Germany and France —
are already training Ukrainians to use the modern artillery systems, missile
launchers and air defenses they are delivering to Kyiv.
But the EU has lagged behind in providing
large-scale training to help the country’s military face off against Russians
forces.
The US, Canada, and Britain have already been
training thousands of troops.
The European training mission should become
operational next month and will have a budget of around 105 million euros for
an initial two-year period.
An official said the plan is to provide basic
training to 12,000 soldiers and specialized instruction to 2,800 more.
Iranian drones
Ukraine’s neighbor Poland is
due to serve as the main hub for the mission and Germany is also set to be a
key staging post for training.
Programs currently run by individual member states
are set to continue and could be incorporated in the EU mission later.
The new tranche of 500 million euros takes the
overall contribution for weapons from the EU’s central coffers to three billion
euros. Member states have also spent more from their own pockets.
Kuleba tweeted that he was “probably the first
foreign minister” to address such an EU meeting from a bomb shelter because of
air raid sirens in
Kyiv.
“Requested more air defense and supply of ammo.
Called on EU to impose sanctions on Iran for providing Russia with drones,” he
wrote.
He also called for a “strong” new package of
sanctions to be imposed on Moscow.
EU ministers discussed the alleged use of
Iranian-made drones by Moscow to hit targets in Ukraine, but no punishment was
expected yet.
Tehran has rejected accusations it has supplied
Russia with weapons “to be used in the war in Ukraine”.
Brussels says it is conducting a probe into possible
violations of a UN resolution and could impose sanctions.
“We are following very closely this use of drones, we are
gathering evidence, and we will be ready to react with the tools at our
disposal,” Borrell said.
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