INFO EUROPE 1 - At least 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers trained by the French army

William Molinié, edited by Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: VYACHESLAV MADIYEVSKYY / NURPHOTO / NURPHOTO VIA AFP 06:12, 08 June 2023, modified at 06:22, 08 June 2023

It may be a decisive summer in the war in Ukraine. If the Russians and the Ukrainians test the enemy devices on the front line, for its part, the France accelerates its formations on the national territory but also in Poland. According to information from Europe 1, at least 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers have already been trained by the French army.

A target of 4,000 fighters trained by the end of the year

Weapons handling, combat in urban areas, mine warfare, emergency medicine... Their training in France lasted an average of one month. A total of 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers have passed since the beginning of the war into the expert hands of French instructors. Some of them learned to handle the equipment delivered by the France, Caesar guns and AMX 10 RC tanks. "What is striking is that in a group of fighters, there can be a 20-year-old kid next to a 50-year-old veteran. They have to deal with very heterogeneous physical conditions," reports a French trainer.

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In Poland, an entire battalion of 600 Ukrainian soldiers was trained by 200 French soldiers for two months. Another session is currently underway with a target of 4,000 fighters by the end of the year. Inevitably, links are forged between brothers in arms. But, according to information from Europe 1, the French army advises its troops to cut bridges once the Ukrainians have returned to the front, for security reasons and in order to avoid too much proximity. Direct learning from the experience of a Baltic State. Some NATO servicemen, no longer hearing from their Ukrainian colleagues, presumably killed in the Battle of Bakhmut, began to develop symptoms characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder.