Macron gathering coalition to send military instructors to Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron is negotiating with the leaders of European countries on the joint dispatch of military instructors to Ukraine.

Bloomberg announced this, with reference to its sources, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

According to them, he is going to present the coalition at the anniversary of D-Day, marking World War II allies’ 1944 ground invasion of Europe ahead of the defeat of Nazi Germany on June 6, which will be attended by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Western instructors will undertake the training of Ukrainian servicemen. According to one of the interlocutors, the assistance will be focused on areas such as demining and maintenance of military equipment. Initially, a limited number of personnel will be sent to Ukraine, but later it is planned to expand the group. The source notes that it will potentially number hundreds of people.

NATO members from the Baltic region have already expressed their readiness to join the coalition.

"Lithuania, if needed, maybe would train them also in Ukraine in partnership with countries that would be willing to do so,” Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said.

Estonia’s defense minister Hanno Pevkur told Bloomberg earlier this week that his government is “open to discuss” the possibility.

According to Le Monde sources, Macron also raised the issue of creating a "coalition of instructors" at a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on May 28. In addition, the United Kingdom expressed its interest in participating. As the interlocutors of the publication clarified, Western instructors will train sappers and soldiers for the new motorized rifle brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

For a number of European countries, participation in the coalition would be a natural continuation of the European Union Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM), which was launched in the fall of 2022 to train the soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the territory of the union. It involves 24 EU member states and Norway. As part of this program, 52,000 Ukrainian military personnel, or 15 brigades, have already been trained. Of them, more than 12,000 people were trained in France. By the end of the summer, another 8,000 soldiers will finish training.

According to representatives of Western military structures, the training of the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territory of Ukraine itself will not only increase their effectiveness, but also reduce the risks associated with their transfer to other countries. Currently, military personnel train mostly in Poland, Germany and the UK, which requires significant logistical efforts and time costs.

The Ukrainian army suffers from a shortage of personnel, and the command is reluctant to release soldiers from the front lines. In the fall of 2023, the training course in France had to be postponed for a month due to the fact that the General Staff of the Armed Forces refused to send soldiers.

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