French President Emmanuel Macron aims to present a plan in the coming week on a possible deployment of French military trainers to Ukraine, as Kiev seeks to fend off Russia's attacks.
Macron plans to do so during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Normandy to commemorate the Allied landings in World War II, he said.
He will "speak very precisely at that time to announce what we are going to do," Macron said, referring to "uncoordinated and unfortunate communication" on the issue beforehand.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov had said late Monday that negotiations with Paris on the issue were ongoing.
Hours earlier, the Ukrainian military's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said it was a done deal and France would begin training Ukrainian army personnel.
Kiev has been asking since February that Ukrainian soldiers no longer be sent abroad for training, but instead be trained in their own country, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.
Ukrainian soldiers have been receiving training in France and other European countries for some time but there has been much recent discussion of the possibility of sending Western military trainers to the war zone to provide more effective support for the Ukrainian army, though no official programmes have been established.
Macron also raised the possibility of sending ground troops to Ukraine earlier this year, sparking debate among Kiev's Western allies.
