The Defenсe Ministers of the European Union countries have discussed the possibility of increasing the target indicator of their training mission for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, EUMAM, since they are set to achieve the preliminary goal by the end of October.

The EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, reminded during a press conference following the informal Ministerial meeting on Defence in Toledo, that the EU's training mission, which had a "real impact and has been implemented at the unprecedented speed", aimed to train 30,000 Ukrainian troops by the end of 2023.

"The mission has already trained 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers. We will have the planned end-of-year figure of 30,000 soldiers by the end of October... I proposed to the ministers to raise the objective of the mission to 40,000 soldiers trained by the end of the year," he noted.

Separately, the EU's chief diplomat mentioned the decision of the Netherlands and Denmark to begin training Ukrainian pilots and maintenance personnel on modern F-16 fighters.

"We will explore the possibility of how we can integrate training modules for Ukrainian F-16 pilots inside the EU mission," Borrell announced.

On October 17, 2022, the European Union's military assistance mission to Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) was officially established, and by mid-November, it began operations.

The mission aimed to train up to 30,000 Ukrainian troops in centers located in EU member countries. As of June, more than 24,000 members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had completed training.

The European Union intends to continue its EUMAM training mission even when the war in Ukraine ends.