First French troops on the way to Ukraine – MP
Kiev has already prepared the necessary paperwork for foreign instructors on its military sites | The first group of French military instructors are on their way to Ukraine, senior Ukrainian MP Aleksey Goncharenko said on Friday. This comes just days after Ukraine’s top commander, Aleksandr Syrsky, announced that he had authorized the presence of French personnel in the country. [...] The idea of deploying NATO boots on the ground remains a contentious issue within the US-led alliance, whose members maintain that they are not parties to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow has said that it views Ukraine’s Western backers as direct participants, stressing that Western-supplied weapons are being used to strike targets on Russian soil. ● In February, French President Emmanuel Macron said he could not rule out the possibility of NATO member states sending troops to Ukraine in the future, although French officials soon clarified that he meant non-combat personnel. Macron later argued that NATO should adopt a policy of “strategic ambiguity” towards Russia. The French leader has been working behind the scenes to forge a coalition of countries willing to dispatch trainers to Kiev, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
■ Macron wants France to ‘go to war with Russia’ – Le Pen (RT.com)