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Ukrainian police chiefs to receive training in Estonia

PPA-ESTDEV cooperation

The Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV) and the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) have signed a partnership agreement to enhance the management capacity of Ukraine’s National Police headquarters and regional Patrol Police units.

ESTDEV and the PPA will bring together Ukrainian police chiefs from the Kirovohrad, Chernihiv and Zhytomyr Oblasts with police chiefs and law enforcement experts from the Eastern, Western and Southern Prefectures of the PPA, with the first group set to arrive for training in April. Running until March 2025, this nearly two-year-long collaboration aims to increase police accountability and reduce corruption by improving management and organisational structures.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Tarmo Viikmaa of the PPA Bureau for International Cooperation, the training will focus on modern management practices, innovative law enforcement methods and overall organisational culture, and the necessary training materials and several PPA strategy documents will be translated into Ukrainian as part of the project.

“Estonian law enforcement experts, including heads of prefectures, will participate in the project and share their experience with their Ukrainian counterparts. Ukraine is an important partner for us, with whom we have been cooperating for a long time, including on projects and training courses like this one. We want to support our colleagues there, especially during the current situation,” said Viikmaa.

This agreement relaunches a project originally planned for 2022-2024, which had to be cancelled due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian police have long been interested in cooperating with Estonian law enforcement and learning from our expertise in internal security. Adopting European practices and management methods is even more important in light of Ukraine’s EU aspirations,” said Eva-Maria Liimetsa, programme manager for Democracy and the Rule of Law at ESTDEV. “We are pleased that Estonian and Ukrainian partners agreed last October to relaunch the project. Because of the full-scale war in Ukraine, we made changes to the training programme to adapt to Ukraine’s current needs and added the Zhytomyr Oblast to the programme.”

Close cooperation between Estonian and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies will contribute to more effective human rights enforcement and the development of democracy and transparent governance in Ukraine.