No consensus on sending EU military trainers to Ukraine: Borrell

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday that European countries were split on whether to send military instructors to Ukraine.

EU countries have trained 50,000 Ukrainian troops outside the war-torn country under a bloc-wide mission set up in 2022.

French President Emmanuel Macron broke a taboo earlier this month by saying Western troops could be sent to Ukraine.

And Kyiv's army chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Monday that discussions were being held on sending French military instructors to the country.

Borrell said that EU defence ministers meeting in Brussels Tuesday discussed shifting part of the bloc's training programme onto Ukrainian soil.

"There has been a debate, but there is not a clear common European position on that," Borrell said after the talks.

"There is not a consensus."

Macron's statement has drawn nods of approval from some of Ukraine's strongest EU allies in the Baltic states and Poland.

But countries such as Germany have been opposed to taking a step they fear could potentially drag them closer to direct conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.

Borrell said those in favour had argued that sending instructors to Ukraine would streamline the training and bring it closer to the "scenario of the war".

On the other hand, those against said the risk of sending military personnel into Ukraine was too high, he said.

"You know that at 27 (EU states) there are different views," Borrell said.

"But things change."

Earlier NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the Western alliance was intent on avoiding getting into a direct war with Russia.

"We do that partly by not sending in NATO troops," Stoltenberg said.

"We don't have any plans of sending in NATO combat troops into Ukraine or to be directly involved in the fight."