FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy interacts with soldiers during his visit to a military training area to find out about the training of Ukrainian soldiers on the “Patriot” anti-aircraft missile system, at an undisclosed location, in Germany, June 11, 2024. Jens Buttner/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
BERLIN(Reuters) - The EU's diplomatic service has called on member states to better adapt a military training mission for Ukraine to Kyiv's needs but stopped short of recommending the bloc send military instructors to the war-torn country, German weekly Welt am Sonntag reported on Saturday.
The EUMAM mission, launched in November 2022, has trained some 60,000 Ukrainian troops mainly in Poland and Germany and is set to be extended by another two years once the current mandate runs out in mid-November.
"It is imperative to train AFU (Ukraine) soldiers on the same equipment that they will use later in combat," the report cited a review of the mission by the EU's diplomatic service as saying, adding that EU defence ministers would discuss the topic next week.
The EU did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the review, which has also been seen by Reuters.
It said that a shortage of Soviet-style equipment was one of the challenges of the current training in the EU.
Kyiv asked the EU in May to conduct some training on Ukrainian soil but member states are divided with sceptics warning that the bloc could be drawn into the war and raising doubts about Kyiv's ability to protect training sites against Russian attacks given its severe shortage of air defences.
The EU review said Kyiv's request could be met by opening the possibility to deploy some EUMAM instructors to Ukrainian training facilities, "in a discrete form", far from the battlefield and possibly in the western part of the country, although it did not recommend that they be sent.
"It is highly likely that an EU military presence on Ukrainian soil would be perceived by Russia as a provocation," the review said.
"The fact that Russia can reach every location in Ukraine with their ballistic and UAV (drone) assets contributes to the highest level of threat for deployed EU military personnel."
The review raised the need to be able to evacuate EU troops in an emergency and the logistical effort involved in offering instructors fortified housing and training sites, while saying that some protective measures, such as against long-range air threats, were not achievable.
"Should the necessary political and operational conditions be met, the deployment of EU military personnel on Ukrainian soil is feasible," the document concluded, adding further analysis would be needed to fully assess the risks and advantages.
However, the review did recommend that the EU establish a coordination cell in Kyiv and explore possibilities to conduct training closer to Ukraine's borders while also training more Ukrainian instructors.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
