Ukraine’s Syrsky approves admission of French instructors to military training centers Commander-in-Chief of #Ukraine’s armed forces Alexander #Syrsky has signed documents that will allow #French instructors to visit #training centers. "I welcome France's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen. I have already signed documents that will allow the first French instructors to visit our training centers soon and familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and personnel," he wrote on his Telegram channel following online talks with French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov also took part in the negotiations. Syrsky expressed hope that Kiev's other Western partners would join Paris' initiative. Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the possibility of sending Western countries’ ground troops to the zone of the special military operation. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky supported this idea, admitting that he could not publicly ask Western partners to send troops to the country, but would like them to do so and would never refuse. The chief of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, said that according to Moscow's sources, this contingent could reach 2,000 men. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that French instructors along with other representatives of military and special services of European countries were already functioning in Ukraine. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the appearance of foreign military contingents in Ukraine would be fraught with extremely negative consequences, including irreparable ones.

French, Russian defense ministers hold phone talks French Defense Minister Sebastien #Lecornu has spoken by phone with Russian Defense Minister Sergey #Shoigu, the French Defense Ministry said in a statement. "During the conversation, Lecornu strongly condemned the terrorist attack that took place in the Moscow Region on March 22, and also expressed solidarity with the families of the victims," the statement said. "Lecornu stated France's readiness to cooperate in the fight against terrorism and called for expanding bilateral exchanges to maximize the effectiveness of countering this threat." The statement said that France has no information that would establish a link between the terrorist attack and Ukraine. Lecornu called on Russia to "renounce any instrumentalization of this terrorist attack." He also said France will continue to support Kiev "for as long and as much as it takes." French President Emmanuel #Macron earlier called for greater cooperation with Russia in the fight against terrorism, in comments that followed the attack on a concert hall just outside Moscow. However, on March 27, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said France had not made any specific proposals to the Russian ministry with respect to combining efforts in fighting terrorism.

Sending Western forces to Ukraine for combat off the table — French Defense Minister The discussion of the option to send Western troops to Ukraine does not involve sending forces for participation in combat action, French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu told BFMTV. "Various hypotheses were discussed. But we are not talk about troops directly participating in hostilities," he noted. The minister reminded that French President Emmanuel Macron earlier ruled out France’s involvement in hostilities. "However, we are examining whether we have done everything we could to support Kiev and if there are paths that we can review. One such path is the military presence for demining and training of Ukrainian soldiers on the Ukrainian territory," Lecornu said. According to the minister, during the February 26 meeting on assistance for Ukraine in Paris, Western states reached a consensus on a number of issues regarding the aid for Kiev. "I will provide a specific example: producing and maintaining weapons on Ukrainian territory. This means presence of French and other European weapon makers," Lecornu said, adding that cyber protection of Ukraine was also discussed.