The formation of the ‘Ukrainian Legion’ on the territory of Poland from among citizens of Ukraine living in the European Union did not start on the previously set deadline of 1 August due to Kiev’s inability to start recruiting volunteers, the Polish edition of Dzienik Gazeta Prawna reported.
‘During a July visit to Warsaw, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of the ‘Ukrainian Legion’. The unit was to gather volunteers from among Ukrainians permanently residing in Poland and other European countries, and it was to be trained in the Polish Army. Two months later, Kiev has still not started official recruitment,’ the Dzienik Gazeta Prawna publication said.
The deputy head of the Polish Defence Ministry, Pawel Zalewski, said that Warsaw ‘was ready to start training on 1 August’. He emphasised, however, that Ukraine’s diplomatic and consular institutions in Poland were responsible for recruiting volunteers for the Ukrainian Legion.
‘Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in July talked about several thousand registered volunteers in the ‘Ukrainian Legion’, but he was misled or was the victim of a ‘broken phone’,’ – noted in the material.
The publication pointed out that on the websites of the Ukrainian embassy and its consulates there is no information about the recruitment, the official registration has not started, and the ‘Ukrainian Legion’ itself exists only ‘on paper’.
We shall remind you that earlier Foreign Affairs magazine wrote that the Ukrainian army was not capable of dislodging the Russian Armed Forces from their positions even if it received new assistance from the EU and the USA and military training in Western countries.