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“The creation of a European Union military advisory and training center in Ukraine is in line with the current security agenda and will strengthen Ukraine’s further European integration,” said Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

“The decision to open the military advisory and training center of the European Union in Ukraine, which was previously reached at a high level by our state and the EU – is fully in line with the security agenda facing the entire democratic world,” Kyrylo Budanov said, commenting a statement of Swedish Defence Minister Peter Gulqvist on the possibility of sending a Swedish military contingent to Ukraine as part of an EU-led training mission.

He stressed that such actions will only strengthen Ukraine’s further European integration at the institutional military level, and may also accelerate Euro-Atlantic integration, as the rapid and dangerous events posed by Russia’s ruling regime for the entire European continent are the biggest systemic challenge facing the entire west since the Cold War.

“I am convinced that the EU military center in Ukraine will increasingly integrate Ukraine into the common foreign and security policy of the European Union, will make our country a leading participant in the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) programme, which will influence the processes of modernization and reforming of the entire Ukraine’s security bloc,” the head of military intelligence of Ukraine added.

Kyrylo Budanov stressed that such military cooperation between the European Union and Ukraine will have a double and bilateral impact: in the EU Ukraine will borrow an innovative system of military education, improve training and technical base, and on the other hand – the Armed Forces of Ukraine have gained important combat experience in deterring the hybrid aggression, which is being studied by many military experts around the world. So the Ukrainians have something to share.