France is discussing with partners the deployment of military trainers in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris.
“We want to have a coalition for efficiency reasons and several of our partners have already given their agreement,” Macron said on Friday evening. “We will use the coming days to build the largest possible coalition capable of responding to Ukraine’s request.”
Macron emphasized that this request was legitimate. Under certain circumstances, it would be much more efficient and practical to train on Ukrainian territory.
“We are not at war with Russia, we do not want an escalation, but we want to do everything in our power to help Ukraine resist,” Macron said.
“Is it an escalation if Ukraine asks us to train mobilized soldiers on its territory? No, that does not mean that we should deploy people, European or allied soldiers, on the front line,” Macron said.
There has been speculation for days whether France would send personnel to Ukraine to train soldiers on the ground.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a large-scale Russian invasion for more than two years. Recently, there have been repeated discussions about the possibility of sending Western military trainers to the war zone to provide more effective support to the Ukrainian army, which has come under increasing pressure.
