The Ukrainian Legion in Poland exists only on paper, training and recruitment have not started: Gazeta Prawna
The Ukrainian Legion in Poland has not yet started military training for Ukrainians who live abroad and want to join the service. Despite the fact that two months have passed since the announcement of its creation, recruiting has not yet started, informs Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, citing responses from various government agencies.
According to the publication, the training of volunteers was to begin on August 1 under the leadership of the Polish Army. However, the Ukrainian side has not yet started recruitment: there is no information about recruiting on the official websites of embassies and consulates.
On July 11, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, stated during the NATO forum in Washington that already several thousand Ukrainians throughout Europe are ready to join the Legion and have registered. However, Polish media reported that “the minister was misled” because the official registration had not started at that time.
“We were ready to start training on August 1. We support this readiness“, said Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland Pawel Zalewski.
At the end of July, the former ambassador of Ukraine to Poland, and now the ambassador of Ukraine to the Czech Republic, noted that in order to start recruitment, it is necessary to sign a technical agreement, which will define the obligations of the parties. Although, according to Polish media, this document has already been signed, the recruitment process has not yet started.
Gazeta Prawna appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Poland, as well as to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Polish agencies reported that the issue is being controlled by the Ukrainian side. However, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense did not provide any comments at the time of publication of the article.
The idea of creating the Ukrainian Legion was announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on July 8 during a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. At the time, the media reported that several thousand men had already expressed their desire to join the Legion, but in practice this process had not yet begun.
