Poland and Germany clash over who will train the Ukrainian military

A sharp conflict arose between Poland and Germany over the preparation of EU training for the Ukrainian armed forces. About it пишет German edition of Der Tagesspiegel.

The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.

So, this Monday, EU foreign ministers in Brussels decided that by the end of the year a joint training mission in the EU for an initial 15 troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should begin.

The actual headquarters of the training mission called "EUMAM" will be in Poland. According to EU diplomats, several EU countries have already shown interest in sending their instructors to Poland.

On the other hand, Berlin fears that a training mission in a neighboring country could become the target of Russian destructive maneuvers, given Poland's geographic location: the border with the Kaliningrad region and Belarus.

However, behind the German-Polish disagreement over the EUMAM mission are not only military considerations. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, tensions have repeatedly arisen between the two countries. Immediately after the Russian attack, the Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki stated that it was a “joke” that Germany initially responded to the aggression only by supplying Ukraine with 5000 helmets.

On the same weekend that Morawiecki demanded arms from Germany at the end of February, the Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a "turning point" in the Bundestag. Today, the federal government indicates that the supply of protective equipment, such as the Iris-T missile defense system, makes a significant contribution to the defense of Ukraine.

Nevertheless deliveries of Western tanks to Ukraine remain the subject of controversy between Germany and Poland. Poland provided Ukraine with Soviet-designed battle tanks and armored personnel carriers and initially hoped to receive replacements from Germany in exchange for what was sent. More recently, however, Morawiecki complained about Berlin's "inaction" in relation to arms supplies to the country.

Given the decisive role of Warsaw in the supply of weapons within NATO, Poland claimed a leading role in the EU's planned training of a total of 15 Ukrainian soldiers. After the head of the EU foreign policy Josep Borrell discussed a joint European mission in August, Germany also showed interest.

Since Warsaw and Berlin could not come to an agreement, valuable time was lost in the summer, which could be used to train soldiers. The compromise finally reached on Monday now includes two headquarters one in Germany and one in Poland. The Bundeswehr is expected to take over a multinational command for specialized training, such as weapons systems training in cooperation with industry, in Strausberg, Brandenburg.

However, bоThe last of the two headquarters will be in Poland. For security reasons, more accurate location information cannot be provided, as stated in Brussels.

Recall that last month, Chancellor Scholz announced that Germany wants to prepare a full Ukrainian brigade of up to 5 soldiers by spring. However, Brussels said on Monday that it was too early to talk about exact numbers.

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