EU Continues to Mull Joint Training Support for Ukraine

"We have to create the basis of an army which has to fight and will have to fight for quite a long time," said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. "Most of the member states agreed that it can be done better together. We are going to study to define the parameters of a potential mission."

Defence ministers from the 27 EU countries this week discussed the possibility – but have not yet reached unanimous agreement – to launch a military training mission for Ukraine. “All member states agree… on launching the work necessary to define parameters,” Borrell told reporters after the informal meeting in Prague, Czechia.

It would be the EU's first operation of this nature to be held on EU soil itself – ordinarily such training missions are held in the targeted country.

Several EU countries such as Germany, as well as the United States, have been providing smaller scale trainings directly with Ukraine. The UK is currently running a 90-day basic training mission for 10,000 soldiers who are joining the Ukrainian army.