The European Council has announced that it is sending EU military personnel directly to Ukraine as part of its ongoing train and advise mission.
However, whereas this program – called the EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM) – previously only took place outside of Ukraine, it will now be extended to Ukrainian territory.
In a Monday press release, the Council confirmed that it is extending the mandate of the EUMAM until November 15, 2028, with a budget of nearly 300 million (or $334 million) – but added this huge new development:
“The Council also decided to establish a presence in Ukraine to ensure direct and effective coordination with the Ukrainian military authorities,“ the press release from Brussels said.
This is a huge provocation aimed at Russia, given that Moscow’s position has long been that European soldiers would be fair game for Russian strikes.
While it’s believed that Western forces and certainly intelligence officers been on the ground throughout the conflict, especially French forces, this has never been done in an official and public capacity.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed this change at a press conference Tuesday while speaking from Abu Dhabi at the trilateral Russia-Ukraine-US talks:
“Europe’s plan is quite simple, and they make no secret of it: as soon as a ceasefire is reached, they intend to move ‘stabilization forces’ into the territory controlled by the Kiev regime.”
Indeed it seems Brussels is trying to create leverage for inself by being more directly ‘involved’ on the ground in Ukraine.
Already the EUMAM Ukraine program has boasted of training more than 100,000 soldiers since it was begun in October 2022.
But this has been done in external countries like main host nations Germany, Poland, or else Denmark – the latter where pilots have been trained. Other host training partners have been Britain and the United States, with bases in Texas and Arizona also featuring fighter pilot training.
This new development could serve to hinder negotiations which are ongoing in Abu Dhabi, and the Kremlin representatives are certainly expected to make more noise about this. The EU has desperately been trying to get a seat at the table of the Trump-backed talks.
