European Union defense ministers could reach an agreement in principle on the creation of an EU military training mission for Ukraine, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said.
Several EU countries have been individually training Ukrainian troops for some time, mainly so that they can handle the weapons that Western countries are supplying to Ukraine to help its fight against the Russian invasion.
“The situation on the ground is still very bad,” foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said upon his arrival at a meeting of EU defense ministers in Prague.
“We will continue to support Ukraine with initiatives like this training mission that the ministers will discuss,” he said, adding: “A general and comprehensive political agreement (on a joint training mission) is what I think we need to achieve today… I hope we get a political green light for this mission.”
It is not yet clear where a broader EU training program might be based or what mandate it might have, and Borrell gave no details.
Later, EU foreign ministers, also meeting in Prague, could agree to tighten visas for Russians and start discussing a broader ban on tourist visas, though EU officials said that there was no agreement on it.
“There is war in Europe and not far from here. Russia’s brutal aggression will be the most important topic of our meeting today,” Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said.