Germany may continue basic training for Ukrainian Armed Forces recruits in 2025 - Head of EU Command Marlow
More Ukrainian recruits may receive basic training in Germany starting next year if Kyiv returns some of its further military training back to Ukraine.
This was stated by the head of the EU Command, Lieutenant General Andreas Marlow, Censor.NET reports citing Reuters.
"We have received more requests for training as Ukraine continues to mobilize, particularly for basic training, which is mainly conducted by Britain," he said.
According to Marlow, this is likely to affect the collective training - involving entire companies or battalions - that has been conducted in Germany so far and that follows basic training.
Marlow noted that Kyiv is looking to conduct more training on its own to simplify logistics and allow troops to be available on the battlefield at short notice. Spain provides some training for Ukrainian troops, as does Poland.
The Special Training Command (STC) is part of a European Union military mission created in 2022 to train about 60,000 Ukrainian troops in various skills by mid-November 2024 to help Kyiv fight the Russian invasion.
Basic training in Ukraine
In Germany, instructors from 14 countries are teaching soldiers how to operate tanks or air defense systems such as Patriot and IRIS-T, while snipers, engineers, paramedics, and drone operators are learning their professions and IT specialists are being taught how to counter hackers.
According to the lieutenant general, Kyiv hoped to move the collective trainings to the homeland partly because it is easier to teach operational doctrine to Ukrainians, but also to speed up the deployment of new troops.
Kyiv would have troops ready for use much faster than if they were trained in Germany or Spain," he emphasized.
Basic training in Germany usually lasts three months, but because of the war, it was reduced to six weeks for Ukrainians.
