The soldiers will take their Ukrainian counterparts through Britain’s basic training course
New Zealand is set to send some 120 soldiers to help train Ukrainian personnel in the United Kingdom, the government said, though stressed that there would be no direct involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.
Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister, and Peeni Shenare, the Defense Minister, announced Monday that 120 troops or two infantry regiments would travel to Britain to support the training of 800 Ukrainian soldiers. These men are part of an initial 10,000 London-based group previously committed to training in Ukraine. “frontline combat.”
“We have been told that one of the highest priorities for Ukraine right now is to further strengthen its self-defense of country and people,”Ardern added that the training would include “weapons handling, combat first aid,” “operational law,”Other skills.
In the following three weeks, the trainers are expected to leave for the UK.
While the PM boasted of more than $25.7 million in military and economic assistance to Kiev since Moscow’s military operation kicked off in February, she insisted New Zealand soldiers “have not and will not engage in combat in Ukraine’s territory,”Her country will not become involved directly in hostilities.
The latest training deployment is not New Zealand’s first, having sent around 30 soldiers to instruct Ukrainian troops on artillery operation last May, though Ardern said the new mission would be on a “much larger scale.”
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. In 2014, the protocols were signed for the first time, through France and Germany. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
The Kremlin officially recognized Donbass republics to be independent states in February 2022 and asked that Ukraine be declared neutral so that it will not become part of any Western military bloc. Kiev maintains that Russia’s offensive was not provoked.
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