Fine Gael Minister for Defence Simon Coveney has refused to rule out sending Irish troops to Ukraine to train the Ukrainian armed forces, which could have wide-ranging implications for Ireland’s military neutrality.
The development comes as EU Defence Ministers are meeting today in the Czech Republic to discuss the future of the ongoing conflict.
According to EU foregin policy head Josep Borrell, the bloc is planning a “powerful training and organisation mission” to further aid Ukraine in its efforts against Russia.
“I don’t quite understand why we send training missions to the Mozambican army and not to the Ukrainian army,” Borrell said, adding that such training would not take place in Ukraine itself, but in neighbouring countries.
Ukrainian soldiers are already receiving training from some individual EU member states, such as Poland and France.
According to the Irish Times, a Department of Defence spokesman said that it was too early to say if Ireland would participate in such a training mission.
“At this preliminary stage, the question of providing personnel or any other equipment is premature,” the spokesperson reportedly said.
Ireland has already committed non-lethal equipment such as body armour to Ukraine, with members of Coveney’s own party urging the country to provide lethal anti-tank weapons as well.
Will Ireland send all our javelin missiles & any other useful hardware? https://t.co/dq4UUz6cvG
— Neale Richmond (@nealerichmond) February 26, 2022
Earlier this year Coveney also said that Ireland would need to recruit an extra 3,000 Defence Forces personnel in light of the Ukraine conflict.
In the programme for government, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens committed to “not participating in projects that are incompatible with our policy of active military neutrality and non-membership of military alliances.”
Furthermore, all three parties ran on a platform of military neutrality at the last election.