Spain has the capacity to train 2,400 Ukrainian soldiers a year in the framework of the recently approved EU mission, Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Tuesday.
“We are making an offer of a total of 400 soldiers (trained) every two months. I would like to say that (…) the capacity we have is around 2,400 soldiers a year (…) this is the offer, the total capacity we have,” Robles stressed upon her arrival at a meeting of the EU Defense Council in Brussels, EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.
With that purpose, the Spanish military academy in Toledo has been “adapted” so that the Ukrainian soldiers “can have suitable living conditions” to perform their training tasks.
Currently, Spain is training “a total of 112 Ukrainian military personnel,” she noted.
Foreign affairs ministers approved the first phase of a military training mission for the Ukrainian army on Monday, with the aim of training up to 15,000 soldiers on EU territory over the next two years.
The mission has a total budget of €106.7 million and will have its headquarters in Brussels. With it, EU countries aim to reinforce and supplement the training that countries such as Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as other international partners, already carry out.
(Julio Gálvez /EFE)
Source: euractiv.com
