Hungarian foreign minister: EU considers sending military advisers to Ukraine

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has said that the European Union is considering deploying military advisers to Ukraine to assist in the training of Ukrainian troops.

Szijjártó stressed after the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg that the EU may send military advisers to Kyiv as part of the mission previously launched to train Ukrainian soldiers – a move Hungary opposes.

"They [the EU – ed.] want to send military advisers to Kyiv – under the framework of the mission established earlier to train Ukrainian soldiers," he said.

He recalled that Hungary opted out of this mission but insisted on a key condition – that such a mission could operate only outside Ukrainian territory.

Szijjártó argued that EU military instructors should not conduct training programmes on Ukrainian soil, saying it "carries a serious risk of escalating the war".

"This is a red line for us," he added.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also mentioned the training mission during her post-meeting press conference, though without specifics.

"We have the mission of training Ukrainian soldiers. So over 73,000 Ukrainian soldiers we have already trained. So today we also discussed what more we can do when it comes to missions – should we expand the mandates of the missions that we have in order to also contribute to the security guarantees of the coalition of the willing," Kallas said.

Earlier reports indicated that the UK is considering deploying troops to Ukraine with the primary goal of assisting in the training and rebuilding of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to deter future Russian offensives.

France and the UK, which lead the coalition of the willing, have also announced plans to send a mission to Ukraine to oversee a future ceasefire.