The Ministry of Defense makes a move after the Ukrainian authorities accused it of not doing everything in its power to help in the war against Russia. Once an increasingly meager arsenal has been searched with a magnifying glass to donate weapons, the ministry headed by Margarita Robles now intends to launch a program for its military to instruct Ukrainian soldiers in Spain. A plan that is likely to be included in a possible next mission of the European Union, in which its high representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has already said this week: “I do not understand why we train the Mozambican army and not the Ukrainian”.
The training of foreign soldiers is not something new for the Spanish Armed Forces. Currently, some 150 Spanish soldiers contribute to the international coalition in Iraq, training their security forces in their fight against the Islamic State; Around 500 soldiers help the Malian Army to improve its military capabilities in its struggle to regain the country’s territorial integrity; and a dozen troops in Mogadishu train Somali forces to combat piracy. All of them are included in NATO and European Union missions.
What the Ministry of Defense is working on, in coordination with an allied country that has not transpired, is to repeat the experience with the same premise: instruct so that those who are educated are the ones who directly face their threats. It will now be with Ukrainian forces, but this time not on their land, but on ours, according to ministerial sources. It would be “basic” training in different training modules whose priority will be set by the Ukrainian Armed Forces themselves.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, one of the keys to resisting the Russian attack has been the arrival of war material. After six months of conflict, the Ukrainian military commanders ask for more modern weapons, which require training to be able to use them. It is in this context that Defense sees an opportunity to continue to show solidarity with Kyiv.
In the list of war material that the government of Volodímir Zelenski delivered to Spain as necessary to balance forces with the Russian artillery were, for example, missiles. Defense has aired – after months appealing to discretion for “security reasons” – that it has made available to Ukraine a complete battery of point anti-aircraft defense and its missiles and has provided the delivery of TOA M-113 units. But it goes further: it has offered – in line with what it wants to turn into a program – to carry out training in the operation and maintenance of the battery. The Ministry of Defense has refused to expand the information on this program when asked by this newspaper.
Spain has also offered to train soldiers in the control of combat tanks, after Zelenski has been interested in buying armored vehicles to replace the outdated ones – and outside of NATO standards – they have. In this case, the training of Ukrainians could take place, explain military sources, in Latvia, where Spain has Leopard and Pizarro tanks deployed as part of a NATO mission.
