The Minister of National Defense, Helena Carreiras, announced Wednesday in Toledo that Portugal is available to provide mine clearance training to Ukrainian sappers and divers, but Ukraine has not yet formalized the request.
“A request in this regard has not yet been formalized, as have been many others that we systematically analyze,” said the minister, speaking with Lusa and RTP, in the Spanish city of Toledo, at the entrance to an informal meeting of ministers of the European Union (EU) with the Defense portfolio.
Helena Carreiras added that the Portuguese Armed Forces are “available, also in this case, to support with training in this mine clearance area, but not more than that, that is, not with a presence in Ukraine, not with equipment.” .
Last week, in an interview with RTP, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov asked Portugal for help, without specifying how, for mine clearance in the Black Sea, which once again became an active place of conflict after Russia ‘ripped apart’ the agreement for the export of Ukrainian grains that was in force for a year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated the appeal days later during a visit by his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Source: TSF
