In the midst of discussions between kyiv and Paris on sending French instructors to Ukrainian soil, Moscow took the lead on Tuesday. The Kremlin has indicated that Russia has not ruled out targeting them.
Between Paris and Moscow, the tension is not about to subside. This is evidenced by the latest threat from Russia. This Tuesday, June 4, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, declared to the press that “no instructor involved in the training of Ukrainian soldiers has immunity” in the face of Russian strikes in Ukraine, specifying by elsewhere: “It doesn’t matter whether they are French or not.”
A particularly targeted threat which comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected in Paris on Friday to discuss “Ukraine’s needs” with Emmanuel Macron while “Russian strikes continue to intensify on the front and on energy infrastructure”, the Élysée announced on Tuesday.
At the end of May, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that some of these famous instructors were “already” in Ukraine, “under the guise of mercenaries”. For its part, kyiv affirmed through its army chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, again at the end of May, that Paris was preparing to send instructors “soon” to train Ukrainian troops on the ground. However, these comments were later tempered by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry itself, which affirmed that the subject was “still under discussion”. To this day, recalls franceinfo, if Emmanuel Macron has several times mentioned the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine, officially, Paris has not sent any soldiers or even trainers to Ukrainian soil. However, discussions are taking place at EU level regarding the idea of sending a European coalition of military instructors there.