Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have agreed to continue training of the Ukrainian armed forces in France and discussed the possible deployment of Western troops in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said on Thursday.
Zelenskyy and Macron held a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. During his visit, the Ukrainian president also met with other European leaders, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, whom he thanked for supporting Kiev.
“I expressed gratitude [to Macron] for France’s preparation of one brigade for our army, and we agreed to continue this cooperation and prepare one more brigade. We hope other partners will join this effort by contributing to equipping additional Ukrainian brigades,” Zelenskyy said on X.
The two leaders continued to elaborate on Macron’s initiative of deploying Western troops to Ukraine “that could contribute to stabilising the path to peace,” the Ukrainian president added.
Macron said after a conference on Ukraine hosted in Paris in February that Western leaders had discussed the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, adding that a consensus had not yet been reached, “but nothing can be ruled out.” Although some EU leaders dismissed the proposal, Macron reiterated that the option should remain on the table.
