NATO member countries agreed today to create a training center in Poland to train Ukrainian soldiers, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reported today, noting that this will also allow Ukraine to share what it learned in the war with Russia.
The idea is to establish this center in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz so that, hand in hand, Ukrainian military “learn and train” together with their allied counterparts, Stoltenberg explained in a press conference following the meeting of NATO defense ministers held today in Brussels.
When will the training center be established in Poland
He training center to be established in the coming monthsas a sample of NATO support to Ukraine, that since the Russian invasion has demanded to be incorporated as a partner into the military alliance. This initiative to train Ukrainian soldiers is parallel to the one launched by the European Union (EU) at the end of 2022 to initially train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russia on the ground.
Since then, the EU successively expanded the missioninstalling cmain headquarters in Poland and Germany, with the objective of training 60,000 troops until next September. During the meeting of defense ministers, several allies presented new commitments for military aid to Ukraine, among which is Canada, Finland and Norway.
In this sense, Stoltenberg indicated that a group of partners led by the United Kingdom and Latvia They will form a coalition to provide one million drones to Ukraine, an initiative that is added to others for demining, missiles or anti-aircraft defenses, Europa Press reported.
The new “business” with drones
In a statement, the British Ministry of Defense confirmed that the objective is to launch the production of drones “on a large scale and at an affordable price“, noting that these unmanned ships have proven very effective on the battlefield since the Russian invasion to provide information about enemy positions.
About the arrival of F-16 fighter jets, In the midst of training Ukrainian pilots by a group of countries led by the Netherlands and Denmark, Stoltenberg assessed that NATO will allow the “sustainable” use of these fighters in the Ukrainian context.
“There is no silver bullet that is going to drastically change the situation, but well equipped and well trained these assets will significantly expand Ukraine’s combat capabilities,” indicated the Norwegian politicianwho reiterated the need to deliver more material and increase weapons production in Europe to meet Ukraine’s needs on the ground.
“We have to move from the slow pace of peacetime to the high-speed production that conflict demands,” summarized.
The United States in the middle of the decision of whether or not to continue helping Ukraine
In that sense, he also referred to the impact that delivery delays have on the battlefield, reported the AFP news agency.
“We already see an impact of the fact that the United States is not able to make a decision”said the Norwegian official in reference to the blockade that the US Congress imposed on sending money for military aid to Ukraine.
The agreement between NATO members It comes days after former United States President Donald Trump threatened debtor countries with urging Russia to do “whatever it wants with them,” statements that generated global commotion and criticism from important leaders.
Former President Donald Trump and NATO
During During his tenure as president, Trump openly criticized NATO allies for resisting increasing defense spending. In the scenario of the war between Ukraine and Russia, several countries in the bloc increased their military investments, but The United States still bears the majority of combined defense spending.
Beyond the threats to countries in default, what worried the allies most is the suggestion that, from the White House, Trump would allow Russia to do “whatever it wants” with debtor countries.
In an unusually harsh message on the X network, Stoltenberg said suggestion that NATO countries would not defend each other “undermines security” of everyone, including that of the United States. Hours earlier he had reported a record increase in military spending by the members of the alliance.
Controversy exposes NATO’s dependence on the United States and opens the discussion on whether the European countries (29 of the 31 members of the military alliance) really have an alternative. Several EU countries have been calling for the creation of a pan-European army and their own nuclear defense, including France, which has been warning for some time that Europe needs another “insurance policy”, beyond NATO, to guarantee security. of the continent.
Source: Ambito
