European servicemen will not fight in Ukraine, but there is a possibility of their deployment to accelerate the training of Ukrainian soldiers, states the Minister of Defense of Estonia, Hanno Pevkur.
According to him, the "reality is that every NATO member country already has military personnel in Ukraine, for example, military attaches or people who come to Ukraine from time to time."
At the same time, Pevkur added that French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal was "mostly about training."
The Minister stated that it is exclusively about conducting training for Ukrainian military personnel on Ukrainian territory. At the same time, he cited examples of Ukrainian Armed Forces training in the United Kingdom, Estonia, and Poland.
"The question is whether we could do the same in Ukraine to speed up the training process because every trip across the border takes time. But that doesn't mean European soldiers will fight in the trenches in Ukraine," he emphasized.
Macron's initiative to send troops to Ukraine
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the possibility that NATO could deploy troops to assist Ukraine, sparking a discussion among Ukraine's allies.
France later clarified that it was not about sending troops directly to take part in combat operations. Some NATO countries expressed readiness to consider such a possibility, including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Canada.
However, the majority of countries did not support Macron's position. Moreover, according to Western media reports, Macron's unexpected statement further strained his relationship with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.