Strausberg: The EUMAM Ukraine mandate will now run until 15 November 2028, after the Council of the European Union extended the military training mission on 9 November 2026 and gave it nearly €300 million for the next two years. EU governments also decided to place a coordination presence inside Ukraine for the first time, so planners can work directly with Kyiv’s commanders.
The decision lands days before the old EUMAM Ukraine mandate expires on 15 November 2026. Without a new legal act, the mission’s training commands in Germany and Poland would have lost their basis in the middle of a hard winter for Ukraine’s armed forces.
According to the Council, member states agreed “to establish a presence in Ukraine to ensure direct and effective coordination” with Ukrainian military authorities and the armed forces, Interfax-Ukraine reported on Monday. The text gives no figure for staff numbers or the exact location of the new cell.
Ministers also widened what the mission teaches. The renewed EUMAM Ukraine mandate puts more weight on battlefield experience and on strengthening Ukraine’s own military training system, following a strategic review of the mission completed this autumn.
The mission has trained more than 100,000 Ukrainian military personnel since EU governments launched it in October 2022 at Kyiv’s request. That figure compares with roughly 63,000 soldiers in November 2024, when the Council last renewed the mandate with a budget of nearly €409 million under the European Peace Facility.
The new budget of nearly €300 million under the EUMAM Ukraine mandate is smaller than the 2024 envelope. Member states already carry much of the training cost themselves through national contributions of instructors, facilities and equipment.
The Council said EUMAM will keep coordinating with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Norway. It will also cooperate with the Coalition of the Willing and with NATO through the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine command, known as NSATU, which organises Western equipment and training flows from Wiesbaden.
That NATO link shapes how the EUMAM Ukraine mandate works in practice. The EU wants its training effort to complement, rather than duplicate, allied structures while an EU team follows Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi.
EUMAM Ukraine started work in November 2022 after a Council decision of 17 October 2022. It runs a Combined Arms Training Command in Strausberg, near Berlin, and a Special Training Command in Poland, while member states supply instructors and courses.
Training has shifted over four years from basic infantry courses towards specialist and leadership skills. The extended mandate now asks instructors to build front-line lessons from Ukrainian units directly into those courses.
The mission sits inside a wider EU military aid effort. Member states have used the European Peace Facility to reimburse arms deliveries and training costs, and the SAFE defence loan instrument lets Ukraine take part in joint procurement.
The step into Ukrainian territory carries political weight. Under every earlier EUMAM Ukraine mandate, EU governments kept training activity on EU soil to limit escalation risks. A coordination presence in Kyiv keeps instructors outside combat zones but brings European military planners physically closer to the war.
The full Council press release on the mandate extension sets out the legal changes. For Kyiv, the renewed EUMAM Ukraine mandate guarantees two more years of European training as negotiations on a ceasefire remain uncertain.
