Paris [France], June 7: "Tomorrow, we will launch a new cooperative relationship and announce the transfer of Mirage-2000-5 fighter aircraft produced by French manufacturer Dassault to Ukraine ," President Macron said on television today. 6.6, according to AFP.
President Macron said that Ukrainian pilots will be trained in France from this summer. Details of the agreement will be discussed by the leader with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when the two meet at the Elysee Palace in Paris on June 7.
"Normally, you need 5 to 6 months. So by the end of this year there will be pilots. The pilots will be trained in France," Mr. Macron affirmed. He did not specify the number of fighter jets to be delivered.
The French President said that Ukraine is facing a "huge challenge" in training soldiers as the country seeks to mobilize tens of thousands of more soldiers to the front.
He said France will equip and train the entire brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers so they can defend themselves when they return to Ukraine after training.
Previously, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army Oleksandr Syrskyi said that French military training officers would soon arrive in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense immediately denied this information while French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that sending training officers to Ukraine was not taboo, according to RT.
Previously, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was evidence revealing that French training officers had worked in Ukraine and warned that those people were legitimate targets of the Russian military.
Mr. Macron announced that there are no French training officers in Ukraine at the present time. He said Kyiv had asked Western allies to send military instructors to train forces on Ukrainian territory to deal with the growing challenge of increasing troop numbers.
"The president of Ukraine and his defense minister asked all the allies - 48 hours ago in an official letter - to say 'we need you to train us faster and you do this. This is on our land,'" Mr. Macron said.
According to AFP, there is speculation that President Macron may quickly announce the sending of French training officers to Ukraine, right after his talks with President Zelensky on June 7.
However, he said France and its allies would make decisions together, stressing that he did not believe any such move by Paris was "escalating". "We are working with our partners and we will act on the basis of a collective decision," he said.
On the other hand, Mr. Macron reaffirmed allowing Ukraine to use French weapons to attack targets in Russia from which missiles were launched into Ukraine. "We prohibit attacks on civilians with our weapons," he noted.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
