Poland to send military instructors to Ukraine
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
26.02.2015 08:47
The Ministry of Defence has announced that Poland will send an unspecified number of military instructors to Ukraine, with the purpose training their Ukrainian counterparts.
Ukrainian servicemen at a checkpoint near Luhansk village, not far from Debaltseve, Donetsk area, Ukraine. EPA/ANASTASIA VLASOVA
''We are preparing a mission under the auspices of NATO for the training of non-commissioned officers,'' Minister of Defence Tomasz Siemoniak told the TVN24 news channel on Wednesday evening.
''We want our instructors, who will be working in training centres in Lviv and Kiev, to school Ukrainian instructors so that they in turn can train non-commissioned officers,'' he expanded.
Siemoniak's comments followed a tweet from Generał Bogusław Pacek, who is in charge of preparing the training program, that “Ukraine’s Defence Ministry turned to NATO countries with a plea to help train its soldiers,'' adding that ''Poland will respond affirmatively.”
This came just hours after President Bronisław Komorowski praised the UK for pledging to send soldiers to assist Ukraine.
Defence Minister Siemoniak has confirmed that the final decision about the numbers of Polish soldiers will be made in March.
Although the minister did not rule out delivering weapons to Ukraine in the future he stated that “like the US and the UK we believe that this is not a good moment [to transfer weapons], as it would escalate the conflict. That is why other forms of assistance are more important.”
Siemoniak also added that unlike Lithuania, Poland will not be reintroducing compulsory military service. (sl/nh)