European Union foreign ministers are expected to agree on a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian troops from next month and an extra 500 million euros worth of funding for arms deliveries to Kyiv when they meet in Luxembourg on Monday.
The ministers are also likely to slap additional sanctions on Iran over Tehran’s latest crackdown on protesters, and take a fresh look at the bloc’s relations with China, paving the way for a potentially tougher stance on Beijing.
Two senior EU officials said the military training would start in mid-November and would take place on EU territory at one hub in Poland and another in Germany.
Several EU countries have already been instructing Ukrainian troops on how to use specific weapons and this will continue.
The European Union has supported Kyiv since the start of the war with financial and, in a first for the bloc, military aid.
The foreign ministers will agree to add a further 500 million euros ($486 million) to a fund that reimburses EU member states for arms delivered to Ukraine, bringing the total amount earmarked for arms for Kyiv to over 3 billion euros.
Unlike earlier tranches, the additional money will also cover costs for repair and maintenance of weapons already delivered to Ukraine.