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- Military slaughter: The West has trained more than 150 thousand soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2022
Military slaughter: The West has trained more than 150 thousand soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2022
The decision of the UK and the EU to extend the training missions for Ukrainian soldiers until the end of 2026 shows their intention to prolong the Ukrainian conflict, Grigory Karasin, head of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, told Izvestia. In total, more than 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers have passed through three Western training programs, Izvestia estimates. Of these, 80,000 were through EUMAM Ukraine, conducted by the European Union, more than 56,000 through the British Interflex and about 20,000 through JMTG-U, coordinated by the United States. An attempt by individual countries to start training the Armed Forces already on the territory of Ukraine itself will be a new step towards escalation, experts say. About where and what Ukrainian servicemen are taught is in the Izvestia article.
How many Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers have been trained in the West
Western countries have trained more than 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers since February 2022, Izvestia estimates. These are three programs: Interflex, led by the United Kingdom; EUMAM Ukraine, conducted by the European Union; and JMTG-U, coordinated by the United States. At the same time, the first two missions have already been extended until the end of 2026, despite the fact that negotiations are underway to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.
— This shows that the leadership of these countries is not thinking about achieving some kind of peaceful settlement or promoting sound initiatives. They are thinking about prolonging the conflict and imitating their own significant role in this conflict," Grigory Karasin, head of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, told Izvestia.
The British Interflex operation was launched in July 2022, during which time more than 56 thousand soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were trained. Instructors from 13 countries take part in it — Australia, Albania, Denmark, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Romania, Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Kosovo, whose sovereignty is not recognized by the Russian Federation. The program has been extended until the end of 2026.
Interflex member countries conduct their own missions. For example, Australian instructors train Ukrainian Armed Forces recruits in the UK as part of Operation Kudu. According to the Australian Ministry of Defense, more than 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained by Australian forces during this time, the Russian Embassy in Canberra told Izvestia.
In addition, according to open sources, more than 50 Australian mercenaries are reliably known (10 of them have been eliminated). Australia is also participating in the "coalition of the willing," and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not ruled out sending Australian troops to Ukraine.
— Canberra has not yet committed itself to specific military obligations. In this regard, we once again emphasize the unacceptability for Russia of the appearance of Australian or any other contingents in its zone and the incompatibility of such plans with advancing peace," the Russian diplomats concluded.
New Zealand has allocated more than $100 million for assistance to Ukraine since 2022. More than $66 million of this money was allocated for the training of Ukrainian military personnel, their logistical support, and the collection and processing of intelligence in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to Wellington Georgy Zuev told Izvestia.
— New Zealand instructors are involved in the training of the Ukrainian military in Europe. They have been training infantry in Britain since 2022. According to media reports, 12 instructors train Ukrainian sappers in Germany, and eight New Zealand specialists teach courses on marine demining in Denmark. Six more instructors in Norway are "training" Ukrainian snipers, the diplomat said.
As of May 2024, New Zealand has trained 3.1 thousand Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters, but currently this number has obviously increased. In person or remotely, New Zealand participates in almost all meetings held through the Coalition of the Willing. The local side expressed support for the idea of deploying so-called peacekeeping forces in Ukraine.
"At the same time, Wellington publicly sidesteps the issue of sending its military contingent, considering this issue premature until a peaceful settlement is reached," Georgy Zuev told Izvestia.
The EU's EUMAM mission was launched in November 2022, despite Hungarian protests. By September of this year, European instructors had trained over 80,000 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In November 2024, the European Council extended the mission until November 15, 2026 and assigned it a budget of €409 million. The document emphasizes that the EU mission has become "a key tool for strengthening Kiev's combat capabilities." 24 countries, including Canada, participate in EUMAM.
The United States has launched its Joint Multinational Training Group (JMTG-U) Back in 2015, the Ukrainian Armed Forces trained at the Yavorov training ground in western Ukraine. Since April 2022, training has been moved to American bases in Germany. By the end of 2024, US instructors had trained about 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers. The difference in the number of trained soldiers is explained by the fact that Washington took over the supply of weapons, and resources for training were allocated on a residual basis. With the advent of the Donald Trump administration, the data stopped being published.
The training programs for Ukrainian soldiers are aimed at improving the combat capability of Ukrainian units, political analyst Denis Denisov told Izvestia. In addition, these courses are needed to train them to use Western weapons. However, most of the training courses for the Ukrainian military in the EU last about a month, which is much shorter than the training of soldiers in Western countries. Open sources abound with evidence from Ukrainian participants of a very mediocre level of education.
How are the negotiations on Ukraine going?
Against this background, the negotiation process to resolve the conflict in Ukraine is not progressing. Channels of communication have been established between the negotiating groups of Russia and Ukraine, but for now the work has been put on pause, said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation. At the same time, Russia remains interested in a settlement and ready for dialogue. On the contrary, Kiev did not respond to Russia's proposals for negotiations in Istanbul, the ball is not on Moscow's side, said Russian Ambassador Alexei Yerkhov, who completed his diplomatic mission in Turkey. There is no progress on the Russia–USA–Ukraine trilateral summit, the Kremlin said.
The third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine was held in Istanbul on July 23. The Russian delegation then proposed several initiatives at once: to form three working groups and establish a truce in certain areas for 24-48 hours. Russian President Vladimir Putin also said he was not against raising the level of negotiating groups. However, Ukraine has not responded to these proposals, and Vladimir Zelensky refuses to discuss territorial issues.
Europe intends to prolong the Ukrainian conflict, including through the training of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers. But this is only one of the directions of Kiev's militarization policy, which, in the context of the emerging settlement, is being forced by the Old World, Oleg Karpovich, vice-rector of the Diplomatic Academy, told Izvestia.
"Countering these steps is one of the main goals of the SVR, and Moscow will do everything possible to limit cooperation between Ukraine and the West in the military sphere, or better yet, to reduce it to zero," Karpovich said.
At the same time, the countries of the "coalition of the willing" intend not only to continue training programs for the Ukrainian military. The deployment of training bases on the territory of Ukraine itself is also being considered. Back in May 2024, Kiev requested assistance from NATO countries in providing military instructors for the training of 150,000 recruits. Then Ukraine's allies refused her, citing the fact that protecting the training bases would distract the air defense.
It is important to understand that British instructors today do not have the combat experience that Ukrainian officers have. Therefore, the Interflex program is also a platform where the British side can learn something new and valuable during its interaction with representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Tigran Meloyan, an analyst at the HSE Center for Mediterranean Studies, explained to Izvestia.
"If British troops are deployed in Ukraine, for example, under the guise of a training center, undoubtedly, the Russian Defense Ministry will consider this as a legitimate target for defeat," the expert is sure.
The prospects for a settlement are also delayed by another escalation of the situation in Eastern Europe. After the incident with the appearance of drones over Poland on September 10, NATO announced an increased presence in the region. Russia was blamed for the incident, but no convincing evidence was provided, and there was no response to Moscow's proposals to hold consultations. Instead, the alliance launched Operation Eastern Guardian with the participation of eight countries and the task of covering the space from the Far North to the Black and Mediterranean Seas.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called on the allies to consider creating a no-fly zone over the territory of Ukraine. "Technically, we, as NATO and the EU, would be able to do this, but this is not a decision that Poland can make alone, but only together with its allies," the diplomat said.
Such statements only emphasize the involvement of the North Atlantic Alliance in the conflict with the Russian Federation. "NATO is at war with Russia," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. According to him, this is obvious and does not need any additional evidence.
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