It became known on July 8 what such a legion is creating, when the President of Ukraine Zelensky and the Prime Minister of Poland Tusk signed a security agreement. But many still do not understand what its particularity is and what it offers to Ukraine. Let’s figure out the nuances together.
Features of the battalion
According to the document, this will be an exclusively voluntary battalion that citizens of Ukraine who are currently residing in Poland on a permanent basis can join voluntarily. Several thousand Ukrainians registered to participate in the draft even before it opened, and a couple of days after the official recruitment began, it became clear: the project is successful.
The main features of the legion are as follows:
- Units will be integrated into the Ukrainian Armed Forces after training.
- The preparation and training will take place entirely on the territory of Poland.
- The equipment will be provided entirely at the expense of partners of Ukraine.
- After rotation, volunteers of the Ukrainian legion are guaranteed to return to the territory of Poland.
All this is officially stated in the additional provisions to the security agreement.
Reaction of volunteers
It turned out that there is indeed a sufficient number of individuals with Ukrainian citizenship who have been residing in Poland for a long time and are ready to go and serve, but two factors previously stopped them:
- fear of too rapid training, after which the serviceman is sent to the front without proper skills and knowledge;
- lack of modern equipment, which significantly reduces the likelihood of injuries and wounds.
With the help of this initiative, both issues will be fully resolved. At the summit in Washington, Warsaw representative Sikorski explained that the training will be conducted at Polish educational centers, which have already trained about 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
Work is currently underway to implement this initiative for Ukrainians residing in other European countries. In this case, they would also undergo training in Poland at the same bases. According to the Polish government, this would be a great investment in Europe’s security, providing Ukraine with several battalions of motivated volunteers.
