The unit, known as the Ukrainian Legion, was created as a result of a security agreement signed between Poland and Ukraine on Monday. The agreement supports the establishment of a volunteer legion in Poland with the potential participation of foreigners.

“In Poland, we are starting to prepare the first Ukrainian brigade made up of volunteers,” Sikorski told the NATO Public Forum in Washington.

“We have [in the country] up to 1 million Ukrainians of both sexes, and several thousand of them have already registered to take part.”

He added: “Interestingly, many of them really want to serve and replace their compatriots [at the front], but they say: we don’t want to be sent to fight without proper training and equipment.”

Sikorski said that Poland will provide training and equipment to the volunteers, and then they would be sent to Ukraine with the right to return to Poland after they finish their rotation.

“If every European country did that, Ukraine would have a few such brigades,” Sikorski added.

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defense minister, has also called on all Ukrainians in Europe to join the new military unit.

“This initiative shows the unwavering support and solidarity of our European partners, but also the readiness to stand arm in arm with Ukraine,” he said in a statement published on Facebook.

“We call on all Ukrainians in Europe to join the Ukrainian Legion. Your input in our fight for independence is priceless. Every step brings us closer to victory!” he added.

Poland’s new NATO center to train Ukrainians

Jacek Siewiera, the head of Poland’s national security bureau, said on Wednesday that Warsaw hopes that the new NATO training center in Poland’s northern city of Bydgoszcz will be able to prepare half a million Ukrainians living abroad to fight against Russian aggression.

Speaking to the Associated Press on the sidelines of the NATO summit, he emphasized the importance of training Ukrainian soldiers outside their country due to war fatigue among Ukrainian forces and challenges in defending them while being trained.

The leaders of NATO, during the second day of the alliance’s summit in Washington, decided to establish a NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training, and Education Centre (JATEC) in Bydgoszcz, a city often dubbed the NATO capital of Poland.