First Ukrainian Legion Volunteers in Poland Sign Contracts with the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The first group of volunteers from the Ukrainian Legion in Poland signed contracts with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported by Ukrinform.
The contract signing procedure took place at the recruitment centre deployed at the Consulate General of Ukraine in Lublin.
According to the procedure, the head of the recruitment centre asked each of the volunteers in turn to sign a contract, which they had read in advance.
‘Welcome to the Armed Forces of Ukraine,’ said the head of the recruitment centre after signing the contract with each of the volunteers.
As Petro Gorkusha, a representative of the recruitment centre, told a media briefing, more than 600 people have applied to join the Ukrainian Legion so far.
The creation of the Ukrainian Legion was announced in early July, when President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk signed a security agreement in Warsaw. One of its points is the training of Ukrainian military units in Poland.
Volunteers from the Ukrainian Legion can sign a contract either for a fixed term (three years) or until the end of a special period. After signing the contracts with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Legion members will be sent to a training ground near Lublin for training. The training will be conducted by NATO instructors at a designated location. In total, the basic training course will last 35 days in accordance with NATO standards. After that, servicemen who need separate training in their chosen specialisation can undergo additional training in other locations.
Under the bilateral agreement, the Ukrainian side provides the Legion volunteers with uniforms and medicines, while the Polish side provides the relevant infrastructure, equipment and weapons for the training period. As of today, it is still being decided whether Poland will assume responsibility for fully equipping this volunteer unit with its own equipment and weapons for its subsequent deployment to Ukraine in the combat zone.
As of early November, the Ukrainian Legion had received over 500 applications from 30 countries.