In an interview granted to the daily “Le Parisien”, the minister explains that these soldiers will be assigned to French units as part of training, in particular for the use of equipment delivered to kyiv by Paris.
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“We do this by respecting the rule of law, without ever being in co-belligerence because we are not at war. We are helping a country that is at war.” In an interview published on Sunday October 16 in The Parisian, the Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, announced that France would train “up to 2,000 Ukrainian troops” on his floor.
This is the first time that France has hosted Ukrainian soldiers for training sessions on the territory since the start of the conflict and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but such sessions have already taken place in other countries, in particularly in the UK.
These soldiers “will be assigned to our units for several weeks”explained the Minister, stressing that the training will cover three levels: “the generalist training of the combatant”, “then, on specific needs reported by the Ukrainians, such as logistics”and “a third level of training on the materials provided”.
Because France will also deliver Crotale short-range anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine, underlined Sébastien Lecornu, specifying an announcement made to this effect on Wednesday by President Emmanuel Macron. Their number “is being defined with the Ukrainians”but “will be significant in enabling them to defend their skies”he assures. “We have twelve of them, but it is a device which is intended to gradually die out and be replaced by MAMBAs (anti-aircraft defense systems equipped with Aster missiles, with a range of up to 50 km or even 100 km , editor’s note), so this will not create a shortage for the French army“, he asserts, saying that “The goal is to complete this operation within the next two months”.
Sebastien Lecornu also recalls that in addition to the 18 Caesar guns already sent to kyiv, “discussions are continuing to mobilize six additional guns” and that France is studying “the delivery of surface-to-surface missiles like the LRU (multiple rocket launcher)” to respond to a Ukrainian request.