Will Emmanuel Macron send French instructors to Ukraine ? An ambiguous speech

During his speech this Thursday, Emmanuel Macron mentioned the project to train Ukrainian soldiers by French instructors but an ambiguous outcome remains on the location of such an operation.

Emmanuel Macron spoke on TF1 and France 2 this Thursday evening. He once again brought up the issue. the case of Ukraine and reaffirmed its support for the country which is still fighting against Russia. "We still have the same philosophy, we help the Ukrainians & resist. But we do not want the war to escalate and under no circumstances are we at war with Russia and its people,” he first declared. eacute;. The president will meet again with Volodymyr Zelensky late this Friday afternoon, a meeting which will be followed by a conference ;press reference which should specify the announcements made the day before.

In recent days, it is the subject of the training of Ukrainian soldiers by French instructors that raises questions. Last week, the commander in chief of the ;#39;Ukrainian army had claimedé that France was going to send instructors to Ukraine to train the country's troops. However, this did not happen. made official and this possibility would still be under discussion.

The Kremlin, however, has already warned that he would not rule out hitting these instructors if such a decision was made. "It doesn't matter that# 39;they are French or not. No instructor involved in the training of Ukrainian soldiers has immunity, reacted the Kremlin spokesperson.< /p>

Training in France or Ukraine ?

During his speech, Emmanuel Macron returned to this subject. "What we are proposing is to train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers, to equip them , to train them, to bring them the ammunition, the weapons, which will allow them to defend their soil,” announced the president. The head of state insisted on the fact that it was a request from the Ukrainians: the country's Defense Minister thus requested,' ;nbsp;in an official letter, help à the orchestrated training on Ukrainian soil.

Emmanuel Macron nevertheless made it clear that the objective was not "to go and train in the combat zone" but that "going to train someone in the west zone, which is a free zone, is not aggressive' towards Russia. The project would therefore still be under discussion: "I did not say that today you have trainers on the French ground nor that we let's do it tomorrow, what I'm telling you is why would we exclude it. 

The president also wants to train Ukrainian pilots on French soil following the sale of Mirages 2000-5, French combat aircraft, to enable them to protect their soil. "We are going to propose to President Zelensky that the pilots be trained this summer, it normally takes 5 & 6 months, he announced.