France could soon send troops to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers and is expected to announce the plan next week despite the risk of provoking Russia, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Diplomatic sources told Reuters that the plan is to send a few dozen trainers at first to assess the mission, and then several hundred French troops will be sent. The training would be focused on demining, maintenance of weapons systems, and advising on Western-provided warplanes.
The sources also said France will finance and train a Ukrainian motorized brigade. “The arrangements are very advanced, and we could expect something next week,” one of the sources said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit France next week on June 6 during the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The following day, Zelensky and Macron will hold talks on the potential training, and an announcement could come after that.
The report comes after Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that France planned to send trainers to Ukraine and that he signed documents paving the way for the deployment. Ukraine later put out a “clarification” that the issue was still being discussed, but Paris has not denied the plan.
For months, Macron has been discussing the idea of sending troops to Ukraine despite the obvious risk of provoking a direct clash between NATO and Russia, which could quickly turn nuclear. Other NATO countries, including Lithuania and Estonia, have said they would support a training mission in Ukraine.
All the talk about sending troops has highlighted the fact that there has been a small, unofficial presence of NATO special operations soldiers inside Ukraine (97 as of March 2023). However, a sizeable official deployment would mark a huge escalation of NATO involvement in the war and would make the French troops potential targets for Russia.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has warned that French troops would be targeted if they “appear in the conflict zone.”
A picture of a dead French soldier from the 2nd Régiment Etranger Parachutiste de la Légion Etrangère, in his French battledress and a Ukrainian flag on his helmet was published on Telegram a couple days ago. The picture was allegedly from the Northern front, near Volvshank.
The alliance to counter US/western totalitarianism is building rapidly
http://www.china.org.cn/photos/2024-05/31/content_117225468.htm
French soldiers will be trained in how to lay in body bags and decompose!
How does President Putin Remain so outwardly calm?
I don't think the Russians will continue to support him if he continues to back down. It's like Biden previously said in early 2022, "He has to do something."
Liberating as much of Ukraine as possible in the face of western totalitarianism seems like a big job to me.
He is not able to deter the West with what he’s doing. Unfortunately, I think the Western populations will not wake up unless he “does something” bigger. Russians maybe getting tired of dying, while they see the West unrepentant and undeterred. That may escalate into all of our deaths, of course. It is demented and illogical, but we in the West are demented and illogical.
Medvedev will be even worse.
I can olny think they have the W. Berlin model in mind …??
"Motorized brigade"? Motorized with what? Pickup trucks like ISIS uses? Bicycles? Scooters? 'Cuz that's all they have left.
Well, at least the EU won't have to worry about another $44 billion next year, because Ukraine won't exist by then.
Dont go in the winter you idiots!
Moscow is nice in January,remember boys?
"Russia’s Foreign Ministry has warned that French troops would be targeted if they “appear in the conflict zone.”"
Which the French may safely read as, "territorial Ukraine".
Macron is skating on thin ice that will crack when his troops are in Ukraine during the winter. He is making an even bigger mistake than Napoleon did when he invaded Russia.
Nuclear weapons were not around in Napoleon's time, they are now. Russia is a nuclear armed nation and the 2nd most powerful nation in the world after the USA.
I hope there won't be other nations copying France, Lithuania and Estonia. There could be.
Russia started no wars under Trump but the war in Ukraine will continue no matter who is elected. Johnson has support from Trump and he supports arming Ukraine to the teeth as much as arming Israel to the teeth.
Ok – then maybe China will announce troops to Ukraine.
If France wants to send troops to Ukraine, that's their business. If French troops get killed in action, that's also France's business. Not ours. Biden needs to make sure American troops don't get sucked into the action.
Well, France doesn't have a good track record with its troops in foreign operations. But I suspect they need an excuse to trigger Article 5.
Why do French military vehicles have rear view mirrors…So they can see the Front Lines