EU, Ukraine to discuss military training and cyberthreats
ABC News
The European Union is considering providing a training military mission to Ukraine amid lingering tensions between Russia and its neighbor
BRUSSELS -- The European Union is considering providing a military training mission to Ukraine amid lingering tensions between Russia and its neighbor, officials said Monday.
Acting on a request from Ukraine for help with “professional military education," the EU sent a fact-finding mission to the country last month. The topic will be discussed during a summit Tuesday in Kyiv, the officials said on condition of anonymity in accordance with EU practices.
The results of the mission have yet to be analyzed in order to define how the 27-nation bloc could best help. One official said the EU's political and security committee, which is responsible for the common foreign and security policy, will go back to the issue in November.
Ukraine is locked in a bitter tug-of-war with Russia, which in 2014 annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and has since been backing a deadly separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. This summer Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged closer ties between his country, NATO and the EU. Russia is adamantly against Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, getting NATO membership.
