French military instructors to visit Ukrainian training centres soon, says Ukraine army chief
Syrskyi gave no further details but said he believed that France’s determination would encourage other partners to join this “ambitious project”.
Ukraine’s Defence Ministry in a “clarification” issued later on X said Kyiv had been expressing interest in a project receiving foreign instructors since February.
“As of now, we are still in discussions with France and other countries on this issue,” it said.
France’s defence ministry said in a statement: “As already mentioned several times, training on Ukrainian soil is one of the projects discussed since the conference on support for Ukraine convened by the President of the Republic on February 26.
“Like all the projects discussed at that time, this track continues to be the subject of work with the Ukrainians, in particular to understand their exact needs.”
Zelensky will visit Belgium on Tuesday to sign a security pact with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the Belgian government said.
Zelenskiy and De Croo will hold a press conference in Brussels, the Belgian government said in a written statement on Monday announcing the visit.
The Ukrainian leader is seeking more military aid from his Western allies as his troops struggle to hold back Russia’s invasion forces.
“We can’t take for granted the foundations on which we have built our European way of living and our role in the world,” the two leaders wrote in a joint op-ed for the Financial Times newspaper.
Macron also put his name to Scholz’s idea of a “Zeitenwende”, the word used by the chancellor to describe the historic shift in Germany’s attitude to defence, which has seen it massively boost military spending following the invasion of Ukraine.
“Looking back at the challenges over the last five years – be it the pandemic, the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine or increasing geopolitical shifts – it is clear: Europe is experiencing its Zeitenwende,” the leaders wrote.
Among the elements put forward by Macron and Scholz were the need to deepen the EU’s single market, and boost investment, while reducing the bloc’s dependence on trading partners for key supplies.
The joint mission statement comes after a period of marked tensions between the leaders of the EU’s two biggest powers.
The French and German leaders will meet in person on Tuesday in Meseberg, close to Berlin, for a joint Franco-German meeting of ministers on the third day of Macron’s Germany visit.
Also on Monday, Russian air defence units downed a drone outside Moscow, said Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov.
Vorobyov, writing on Telegram, said fragments from the downed drone landed on a private house at about 9pm local time in Balashikha, just east of the capital. Those inside the house escaped unharmed.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported that air defence units had destroyed a “small-scale airborne object”.
Tass news agency, quoting aviation services, said aircraft had been temporarily directed away from flight paths northeast of Moscow but airports in the Moscow region were later reported to be operating normally.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse