The Potential Deployment of EU Military Instructors to Ukraine.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has warned against the potential deployment of EU military instructors to Ukraine, calling it a “very dangerous proposal” that would lead to soldiers from the bloc becoming fully involved in the conflict. Last month, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters that the bloc may have to adapt its training capacities and offers to the needs of Ukrainians. This could potentially involve some of the training being done in Ukraine, allowing the EU to tailor its training “to the real circumstances of the war.” However, there is still no consensus on this idea among the 27 member states.
Szijjarto told Hungarian reporters that such a move would be considered as crossing another red line and that Hungary considers it unacceptable, arguing that it would be “practically the first step towards sending European soldiers to Ukraine.
Currently, around 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers have already been trained in the EU under a bloc-wide mission set up in 2022. The EU Advisory Mission also trains Ukrainian police and national guard units on Ukrainian soil, while mercenaries from multiple EU countries have joined Kiev’s military, allegedly without their home countries’ backing.
Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he was working to “finalize” a coalition of Western nations willing to send military instructors to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by stating that Western military personnel are already active in Ukraine “under the guise of mercenaries” and have been there for a long time.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov singled out the French in particular, telling reporters that “whether they are members of the French armed forces or simply mercenaries, they represent an absolutely legitimate target for our armed forces.” In January, Russian forces carried out a missile strike on a temporary base for foreign fighters in Kharkov, killing at least 60 soldiers, with most being “French mercenaries,” according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Hungary has repeatedly called for peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, and has refused to allow any Western weapons to enter Ukraine via its territory. Budapest has also threatened to veto the EU’s economic penalties on Moscow, agreeing to 14 successive sanctions packages only after securing concessions from Brussels, including a partial exemption from the EU’s bloc-wide oil embargo and a guarantee that its nuclear sector won’t be affected by future packages.
Additionally, Hungary has vetoed the EU’s use of seized Russian assets to purchase arms for Ukraine. However, Borrell told the Financial Times on Monday that Brussels had developed a legal workaround to bypass Budapest’s block.