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Polish official expects high defection rate among Ukrainian troops trained in Poland

Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz admitted that he was concerned about the fact that a very small number of Ukrainian men currently residing in Poland had expressed a wish to receive military training and join the Ukrainian armed forces

MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. The Ukrainian soldiers that are undergoing training in Poland will defect more often in the future, even though the number of defectors is currently low, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

"The level of defection is low [among the Ukrainians training in Poland]," Radio Zet quoted him as saying. "The longer the conflict lasts, the higher it will be," Kosiniak-Kamysz noted.

"I believe the situation is far more difficult in Ukraine itself," the Polish official added.

Kosiniak-Kamysz admitted that he was concerned about the fact that a very small number of Ukrainian men currently residing in Poland had expressed a wish to receive military training and join the Ukrainian armed forces. "Few agreed to do that here (in Poland - TASS). Only several dozen people were willing to receive such training," the minister specified.

He pointed out that a total of 26,000 Ukrainian service members had undergone training in Poland, accounting for roughly 30% of all Ukrainian troops trained by NATO countries.