Following his visit to Ukraine on Aug. 18, Britain’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced that the U.K. will lead a multinational Maritime Training Initiative for the Ukrainian navy in order to boost Ukraine’s ability to combat threats in the Black Sea.
The initiative will share expert knowledge of U.K.’s Royal Navy and provide a coordinated training package to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, the training consists of courses from the Royal Navy and naval personnel from Sweden, Canada and Denmark in areas such as “navigation, operational planning, military diving, sea surveillance, fire-fighting and damage control.” The U.K. expects more nations to join the initiative in the near future.
Both sides also agreed to resume Operation Orbital, U.K.’s training mission to Ukraine, following its temporary suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic. In effect since 2015 and extended by Wallace until 2023, Operation Orbital has trained over 18,000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“We have already assisted thousands of Ukrainian personnel in a plethora of skills ranging from basic first aid to operational planning, all of which defends their territorial integrity from Russian-backed separatists,” said Wallace.
Britain has been a vital partner in protecting Ukraine’s integrity in the Black Sea region since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Four years later, tensions appeared to only increase as Russia had seized three Ukrainian navy boats and arrested 24 Ukrainian sailors in the Sea of Azov. The International Tribunal for the Law and the Sea in Hamburg ruled in Ukraine’s favor, signaling the international community to pay closer attention to Russia’s naval bullying and dominance in what Russia considers its “backyard”.
On Jun. 12, Ukraine became an Enhanced Opportunities Program member of NATO, deepening its cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance.
“As part of NATO’s Enhanced Opportunities Partner (EOP) we hope to intensify our common efforts to ensure security in the Black Sea region and to work closely together to overcome hybrid threats,” stated Olha Stefanishyna, the vice prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, on Aug. 11.
Stefanishyna further thanked the U.K. government for the increase of technical assistance to counter Russian aggression.
Wallace asserts that the Maritime Training initiative will help Ukraine fully benefit from its enhanced collaboration with NATO, as well as build on Ukraine’s newfound status within the alliance.
