Military personnel from 11 countries began an exercise in Poland on Monday to test how they would move and supply a multinational force if the fighting in Ukraine ends. Led by Britain and France, Exercise Koalicja runs through Nov. 22, with its main training at Nowa Dęba in southeastern Poland. The Dutch government confirmed the start, and the Kyiv Independent reported that the drills are the first major exercise of the coalition’s military force.
The exercise rehearses the work of getting troops from different countries to the same place and keeping them supplied once they arrive. The British plan calls for participants to test how they move people and equipment, protect units and coordinate decisions across national commands. The force would enter Ukraine only after hostilities cease and at Kyiv’s request, London says. The exercise itself does not put coalition troops into Ukraine.
Getting troops and equipment into place
Poland’s exercise notice lays out a route from ports, airfields and land crossings to a common training area. Arriving units are to assemble in Poland before continuing by rail or road to Nowa Dęba. There they will have to fit into the same operating plan. Poland has organized support for the visiting units, including fuel, lodging, medical care and equipment maintenance.
Military planners call that sequence reception, staging and onward movement. For this exercise, it starts before soldiers reach the range. At an arrival point, a unit has to regroup with its equipment and get ready for the next leg. A train or road convoy can carry it onward, but the receiving site also needs to be ready to take it in. The Polish schedule sets aside a demonstration for Nov. 20 that will include transportation, equipment repairs and training alongside the work of receiving and supplying troops.
Poland says it would manage troop movements and provide logistical support in a future operation. Warsaw has also said it would keep its own troops out of Ukraine, a distinction confirmed by local reporting. Hosting the exercise gives Poland a role in testing the route and the support system on its side of the border, even if any eventual operation across that border draws on different national contingents.
London and The Hague put participation at about 2,800 military personnel. The Polish ministry gives that figure for activity in Poland, at the operational headquarters in France and in the maritime component in Turkey, and says nearly 2,000 Polish soldiers will also train. Polish reporting likewise describes the host’s contingent separately. The figures therefore do not all describe the same group of people assembled at the range.
Separate rehearsals for air and sea
Britain says its contribution includes about 300 personnel, with soldiers from the 7th Brigade practicing logistics. Royal Air Force Typhoon fighters and a Voyager refueling aircraft will also fly sorties. The Dutch ministry says it is sending several hundred personnel, mainly from its army, as well as F-35 fighters and their support crews. The announced exercise tests how units with those different roles work under one multinational command.
The air drills have a civilian objective: to rehearse how a military force could help commercial flights return to Ukrainian airspace after the fighting stops. Turkey is leading a separate maritime simulation from Istanbul. The British ministry says it will test arrangements for clearing sea mines so that merchant ships can return safely to Ukrainian ports. Notes From Poland reports that Turkey is running the simulation without sending troops to the training area in Poland.
What a future mission would require
The Multinational Force Ukraine is the military arm of the Coalition of the Willing and operates separately from NATO, according to the Polish government. The roles officials describe include training Ukrainian troops and helping the country restore military equipment and capabilities. Britain and Poland say the force would neither police a ceasefire nor serve as a peacekeeping mission. The Polish ministry says the proposal follows the January Paris declaration, which set out security arrangements that would take effect after hostilities end. Under the plan described by the participating governments, the multinational mission would be one part of those arrangements, with Ukraine’s own military at the center of the country’s defense.
Moscow opposes the proposed deployment. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova argued that it would threaten Russian security and warned that Russia would regard foreign military units in Ukraine as targets, the outlet reported. The warning addresses a prospective presence inside Ukraine. The activity that began Monday is a rehearsal led by Britain and France, centered on Polish territory.
The Dutch statement makes clear that taking part in Koalicja does not commit the Netherlands to sending troops to Ukraine. It says a future Dutch deployment would depend on national and international political decisions. The immediate question for the exercise is narrower: whether contingents can assemble, work through a common chain of command and sustain operations together. A decision on whether to send that force into Ukraine would come separately, if the fighting stops and Kyiv asks for it.
