Ukraine’s defense ministry has walked back claims that French instructors would soon arrive in the country to help train Ukrainian military personnel.
“As of now, we are still in discussions with France and other countries on this issue,” the ministry said in a statement posted on social media.
It noted that Ukraine’s military leadership had begun “internal work on the relevant documents ... in order to not waste time on coordinating bureaucratic issues when the relevant decision is made.”
The clarification followed an earlier statement by Ukrainian army chief Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi in which he said Kyiv had signed an agreement with Paris allowing the latter to send military trainers to Ukraine.
“I am pleased to welcome France’s initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen,” Col. Gen. Syrskyi said in a May 27 social media post.
“I have already signed the documents that will enable the first French instructors to visit our training centers shortly and familiarize themselves with infrastructure and personnel.”
The French Defense Ministry has since clarified that proposals for sending military instructors were still under discussion.
“Training on Ukrainian soil remains the subject of discussion with the Ukrainians in order to determine their exact needs,” the ministry said in a statement.
As it currently stands, France doesn’t have any military personnel—officially at least—assisting or training forces inside Ukraine.
In recent months, the notion of sending Western military personnel to Ukraine—either as trainers or in a combat capacity—has steadily gained momentum.
In February, French President Emanuel Macron surprised observers when he told a meeting of European Union leaders that the deployment of Western personnel to Ukraine “should not be ruled out.”
Since then, he has gone even further, saying Kyiv’s allies should have “no limits” in their approach to Russia’s ongoing invasion, now in its third year.
But most Western capitals have balked at the idea, in public at least, fearing that such a move could broaden the conflict and trigger a direct confrontation with Russia.
The White House has repeatedly stated that it wouldn’t send personnel—of any kind—to Ukraine and has urged its NATO allies to follow suit.
Last week, Gen. Charles Brown, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated Washington’s stance on the issue.
“Right now, there are no plans to bring U.S. trainers into Ukraine,” Gen. Brown told reporters on May 20.
Nevertheless, Mr. Macron’s aggressive approach has gained traction among some NATO allies, particularly Poland and the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania).
In March, Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, said deploying military personnel to Ukraine was “not unthinkable.” He later asserted that Western personnel were “already” there, describing their presence in Ukraine as an “open secret.”
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, recently said training Ukrainian soldiers—on Ukrainian soil—was “quite doable.”
He further asserted that training soldiers inside Ukraine was “more practical” than training them in NATO member states.
Last week, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas claimed that some allies of Kyiv—she didn’t say which ones—were already “training soldiers on the ground” in Ukraine.
On May 28, European defense ministers convened in Brussels to discuss proposals for providing Kyiv with Western military instructors.
According to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the meeting concluded without reaching any consensus on the issue.
“About doing part of the training in Ukraine, there has been a debate, but [there] is not a clear common European position,” Mr. Borrell said after the meeting.
While the EU already runs a training program for Ukrainian military personnel, its activities are currently limited to the territory of the bloc’s member states.
However, according to a top Russian diplomat, Konstantin Gavrilov, French, Polish, and Baltic nationals have been present in Ukraine since the conflict began in early 2022.
“France, the Baltic States, and Poland are especially zealous when it comes to the potential deployment of national contingents to Ukraine,” Mr. Gavrilov told Russia’s TASS news agency on May 27.
“Citizens of these countries have been fighting for Ukraine—as mercenaries—since the very beginning.”
The next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated the claim, saying Western “specialists” were present in Ukraine “under the guise of mercenaries.”
“They are there and they are sustaining losses,” the Russian leader said while on a state visit to Uzbekistan. “And it’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to conceal these losses.”
