German chancellor Olaf Scholz discusses Russian attacks, energy costs with lawmakers

Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany will train a brigade of up to 5,000 Ukrainian troops as part of a European Union training mission approved earlier this week.

The EU on Monday approved the mission, which will run for two years initially. Its immediate aim is to train about 15,000 troops, chiefly in Poland and Germany, and it’s hoped that the mission will be up and running by mid-November.

Scholz told lawmakers in Berlin on Thursday that one of the headquarters will be in Germany and “by spring, we will train a full brigade of up to 5,000 soldiers.”

Scholz also said “scorched-earth” tactics won’t help Russia win its war in Ukraine and stressed that “deliberate attacks on the civilian population are war crimes.”

Scholz also underlined Germany's concerns about the idea of a cap on natural gas prices, which many other European Union nations are prepared to embrace.

He told Germany's Parliament before an EU summit starting later Thursday that "a politically set price cap always carries the risk that producers then sell their gas elsewhere - and we Europeans ultimately don't get more gas, but less."

He said the EU must consult closely with other gas consumers, such as Japan and South Korea, so that they don't compete with each other; and that it's important to talk with gas producers about "a reasonable price."