Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged allies to start training military contingents that can replace “tired” Ukrainian troops on the battlefield. “Our message to all countries is: prepare brigades, they can be a reserve and can replace our guys who are tired, they can replace them on the battlefield,” Zelenskyy said at a joint briefing with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
French President Emmanuel Macron was the first to announce the possible dispatch of NATO troops to Ukraine in February this year. However, most of Kiev’s allies, including the United States and Germany, have publicly rejected the idea. Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also ruled out such an option. At the same time, the head of the NATO Military Committee, Rob Bauer, emphasized that the issue of sending troops of any member state of the alliance to Ukraine should be discussed by the entire bloc.
At the same time, the UK considered the possibility of sending military instructors to Ukraine to train AFU soldiers. The Russian authorities said that Western military officers were already on the territory of Ukraine and were training the Ukrainian military. Russian “President” Vladimir Putin said Moscow views them as interventionists. “If we are talking about official military contingents of foreign countries, I am sure it will not change the situation on the battlefield,” Putin noted. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized that sending NATO troops to Ukraine would make a military conflict between the alliance and Russia inevitable.
