According to information from Kyiv, France wants to send military trainers to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Monday that he welcomed “France’s initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian army personnel”.
In a Facebook post, Syrskyi added that he had already signed documents “allowing the first French instructors to visit our training centres soon and familiarise themselves with their infrastructure and personnel”.
Ukraine’s Defence Ministry in a “clarification” issued later on X said Kyiv had been expressing interest in a project receiving foreign instructors since February.
“As of now, we are still in discussions with France and other countries on this issue,” it said.
France’s defence ministry said the issue was being studied but did not confirm the deployment.
“As already mentioned several times, training on Ukrainian soil is one of the projects discussed since the conference on support for Ukraine convened by the President of the Republic on February 26,” a statement said.
“Like all the projects discussed at that time, this track continues to be the subject of work with the Ukrainians, in particular to understand their exact needs.”
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian war of aggression for more than two years.
French President Emmanuel Macron has opened the door to sending troops to Ukraine and at a conference in Paris on February 26 suggested that one area Western troops could help with would be to train Ukrainians in Ukraine.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, who was re-elected for a second term on Sunday, has said repeatedly that his country is prepared to send professional soldiers for training missions to Ukraine should Kyiv request it.
Czech President Petr Pavel said in March that sending instructors would be possible, but ruled out combat troops.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) are moving closer to sending instructors into Ukraine to train its troops.
dpa, Reuters and Bloomberg
