Overview
- A joint Paris-London announcement on Tuesday said the exercise, named Koalicja, will run from 9 to 22 November in southeastern Poland near Nowa Dęba and involve about 2,800 troops from ten European countries.
- France will provide the largest contingent, roughly 1,100 troops, the United Kingdom about 300, and participating states include Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
- The Polish phase will rehearse land and air operations close to the Ukrainian border to test rapid entry and logistics for post-conflict support.
- Turkey will lead a parallel maritime simulation run from Istanbul to practise Black Sea tasks such as mine clearance, and officials stress any real deployment into Ukraine requires an agreement with Russia on a ceasefire.
- The MNF-U builds on an earlier intent declaration signed by Emmanuel Macron, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Keir Starmer and is meant to show coalition command and readiness for stabilization tasks after fighting stops.