According to information from Kiev, France wants to send military trainers to Ukraine.
Ukraine's military Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Monday that he welcomed "France's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian army personnel."
In a Facebook post, Syrskyi added that he had already signed documents "allowing the first French instructors to visit our training centres soon and familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and personnel".
There was initially no official confirmation from France that such a training mission was actually planned.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian war of aggression for more than two years. Recently, the possibility of sending Western military trainers to the war zone to provide more effective support to the Ukrainian army, which has come under pressure, has been discussed time and again. Officially, there are no such training programmes to date.
When asked by dpa Monday evening, the Ministry of Defence in Paris merely stated: "As already mentioned several times, training on Ukrainian soil is one of the areas under discussion." It went on to say: "Like all the topics discussed on this occasion, this issue will continue to be discussed with the Ukrainian side, in particular to understand their precise needs."