Denmark to train Ukrainian soldiers on its territory
After 30 years of having opted out of the EU defense policy, Denmark decides to join again and train inexperienced Ukrainian soldiers on its territory.
-
Danish Defense Minister Morten Bødskov (Ritzau Scanpix)
Danish Defense Minister, Morten Bødskov, stated Tuesday that Denmark will be training Ukrainian soldiers on its territory. The Danish approach is similar to that in Britain, where up to 10,000 inexperienced Ukrainian military recruits have been trained since July 2022.
According to Ritzau, Bødskov said during his visit to Kiev that “There will be training in Denmark. I cannot give more details but the Ukrainian army will be training in Denmark.”
Denmark committed in August to send 130 officers to Britain to back the British initiative. However, the readiness to train soldiers on Danish land demonstrates the European Union's and NATO member countries' increased support for Ukraine.
Last month, a summit of Ukraine donors in Copenhagen committed 1.5 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in additional help for training and equipment for Kiev's army.
Earlier in June, Danes decided, through a referendum, to rejoin the EU's common defense policy, after having opted out of it 30 years ago.
In the past few days, Ukrainian forces, after being fed intelligence information by the US, have advanced in Kharkov while the Russian forces withdrew to Donetsk to reorganize.
On Tuesday, Estonia's prime minister and Lithuania's president urged Europe to provide military assistance to Ukraine.
After a three-way phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, Estonian premier Kaja Kallas tweeted:
Thank you for your call @EmmanuelMacron to discuss our support to #Ukraine.
— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) September 13, 2022
Ukraine is showing how the power of morale and leadership can be as crucial as pure military force.
Our focus must now be on increased and speedy military aid - this takes Ukraine closer to victory.
Nauseda also tweeted: “Emphasized that Ukraine needs weapons to advance in its fight against Russian aggression. Western support must be scaled up.”
Read more: Duma slams US for seeking to drag on conflict `down to last Ukrainian'
