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Europe's army insufficient for sending troops to Ukraine — Polish intelligence service

The head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Dariusz Lukowski, said that Germany "most likely has only one division that could be fully mobilized, and even that would require considerable effort"

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. The European countries do not possess enough trained military personnel to participate in a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine after hostilities cease, said the head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Dariusz Lukowski.

"If we are discussing a 100,000-strong contingent, we’re talking about an entire army corps, a very large corps. Europe does not have such forces prepared for deployment," Lukowski said on Radio Zet.

"Europe lacks such troops. Take Germany for instance - it most likely has only one division that could be fully mobilized, and even that would require considerable effort," he added.

Politico reported on January 3 that European nations are still debating sending a military contingent to Ukraine. The report noted that French President Emmanuel Macron met with US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky in December. According to Politico, after that, Macron aimed to persuade Poland to send peacekeepers, but Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk disagreed, leading to a deadlock in negotiations. Reuters reported that such a contingent could include up to 100,000 troops from 5-8 countries, including Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and Poland. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov had previously warned that the presence of foreign military forces in Ukraine would lead to extremely negative consequences, potentially even irreparable ones.

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