The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, explained to a group of European journalists visiting Warsaw, including Agence Europe, on Thursday 5 November, that the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ exercise, which will begin on 9 November in Poland, is intended to help prepare the coalition for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“The exercise of the coalition of the willing will help us prepare in a practical way for potential security guarantees for Ukraine after a ceasefire”, the Prime Minister explained. He stressed that this did not mean a ceasefire was imminent and reiterated the need to be realistic about peace talks and the intentions of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. “We want to be ready”, Mr Tusk said.
The exercise, called ‘Koalicja’, will be held in Nowa Deba, in south-eastern Poland, will run until 22 November and will bring together 2,800 military personnel from the coalition. It is the first large-scale exercise conducted by the Multinational Force-Ukraine (MNF-U), the coalition’s military arm.
“The exercise will cover multi-domain operations. It is important to ensure cohesion and the ability to pass information between different command systems”, said Polish General Mariusz Chmielewski, commander of the Cyberspace Forces Component Command of the Polish Armed Forces.
“The fusion of those elements, cyber, space, land (...) and, of course, air will be very important as an achievement”, he said.
According to the British armed forces, the exercise will involve testing command-and-control arrangements for the force, rehearsing the movement of personnel, equipment and supplies and assessing how different components can integrate and operate effectively as one multinational force.
While every national military has its own classification requirements, “we need to pass the information through very sophisticated tools and systems. This is also about developing interoperability in the system”, the Polish general added, acknowledging that “to fuse those capabilities for the benefits of a coalition demonstrating, unified, integrated, interoperable force will be a challenge”.
Four countries that will provide most of the personnel for the exercise, will take command during the exercise: France will command the land and air forces, Türkiye the energy and maritime aspects, the United Kingdom space and cyber operations, and Poland the logistical aspect. “Poland will play an important logistical support role, but as I said many times, we will not send troops to Ukraine”, Donald Tusk reminded the journalists.
A total of 11 countries are expected to take part: Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye and the United Kingdom. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)