06/09/2022 (Agence Europe) – EU High Representative Josep Borrell admitted on Monday, 5 September, that Europeans had made a mistake by not agreeing on a training mission for the Ukrainian army in 2021 (see EUROPE 12849/15). “Well before the war, many European members asked me, as the External Action Service, to develop a high-level military training or military education [mission] for the Ukrainian army. [That] was last year. And, unhappily, we didn’t. And today, we regret [...] that, last August, we were not following this request [...]. Had we had had [the training], [the Ukrainian army] would be in a better situation”, he stated during the Inter-Parliamentary Conference for the CFSP and the CSDP, adding that it was “never too late”. On 30 August, EU defence ministers called for the work to put such a mission in place to move forward (see EUROPE 13010/1). (CG)