French military instructors soon deployed in Ukraine?

2 mins

For the moment, what is circulating is not about combat troops but about military personnel. The latter would extend the training given to Ukrainian soldiers on their soil for greater efficiency. This would allow the Ukrainians to save time, particularly travel time.

There France could take the lead in an Ad-Hoc structure, a coalition for training as was done for artillery with a certain number of volunteer European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia. In these training courses, there will probably be mine clearance, maintenance operations and command training. Everything will depend on the volume of instructors sent. But ultimately, if it is set up, the contingent could amount to several hundred men.

The instructors would be deployed on a restricted part of the territory

These training will necessarily be carried out on a restricted part of the territory, in the western part of Ukraine to limit the risks. It is also unlikely that it will be possible to organize large training operations in open terrain. Again, that would be too obvious a target. Most activities should therefore be done indoors.

Russia said on Tuesday June 4 that it had not ruled out hitting French instructors and that it would be a completely legitimate target. This possibility is taken into account in Paris. And there is no doubt that there are currently discussions between allies on the reaction to adopt if Western soldiers were ever targeted.

But the worst is not certain. Moscow could also decide to let material support pass as it did, knowing that sending instructors would only be another demonstration of European solidarity with Ukraine.

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