BRUSSELS, August 30. /TASS/. As of August 31, EU countries would have trained 60,000 Ukrainian troops on their soil, Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Defense Ministry Thomas Hitschler said.
"As of tomorrow, we will reach our target goal of 60,000 Ukrainian troops trained in the EU," he said, adding that 10,000 Ukrainian servicemen will complete their training in Germany by the end of the year.
The EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) involves 24 EU countries and was launched by the EU on October 17, 2022. Its mandate expires in October, but Brussels intends to extend it. According to open sources, some of the servicemen trained in the EU are participating in the armed incursion into Russia’s borderline Kursk Region.
Until now, all the training of Ukrainian troops has been held only in the EU but amid personnel shortages, France, supported by Baltic countries and the European External Action Service (EEAS), suggested moving some training courses to Ukraine to speed up the process, dispatching European military instructors there. So far, this proposal has triggered serious differences of opinion. Several EU countries are against it, including Austria, Hungary and Germany.