"Volunteer Alliance" Multinational Forces Launch First Joint Exercise Focused on Security Support for Ukraine

On the 9th local time, the multinational force "Volunteer Alliance," co-led by the United Kingdom and France, launched its first joint exercise in Poland. The exercise, codenamed "KOALICJA 26.2," will last until the 22nd and involves approximately 2,800 soldiers from 11 countries, focusing on how multinational forces can quickly deploy and provide security support to Ukraine after a potential ceasefire or end of conflict.

According to the Polish Ministry of Defense, the exercise is primarily held in Poland, with related training segments also taking place in France and Turkey. Participating countries include Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. France and the United Kingdom will jointly be responsible for command.

Both the Polish Ministry of Defense and the UK Ministry of Defense emphasized that this multinational force is not responsible for peacekeeping and does not undertake ceasefire monitoring tasks, and it operates independently of NATO's military command structure. The current focus of the exercise is to test whether European countries can quickly organize and deploy relevant forces when needed in the future.

Analysts from France have suggested that the scope and duration of this exercise could provoke Russia.

In January of this year, Alexey Polischuk, Director of the Second CIS Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented on the written commitments of the UK and France to deploy troops in Ukraine: "Such 'forces' will not bring peace and cannot guarantee security. On the contrary, they will undermine peace efforts and pose a direct threat to the security of Russia and Europe." (Reporter: Wolong, CCTV)