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.

#Zelensky accuses West of Ukrainian forces surrendering #Avdeevka Ukraine's Zelensky virtually accused Western countries of the fact that Russia had gained the upper hand in the situation in Avdeevka and explained it by an "artificial deficit" of weapons. "Our actions are limited only by the sufficiency and length of range of our strength," he said, adding, "unfortunately keeping Ukraine in the artificial deficit of weapons, particularly in deficit of artillery and long-range capabilities, allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war." Zelensky also admitted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were forced to retreat from Avdeevka in order to avoid being surrounded. He also admitted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been on the defensive since October last year. The new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky announced earlier that he had decided to withdraw Ukrainian units from Avdeevka. At the same time commander of the Tavria group of troops Alexander Tarnavsky said that units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had already left Avdeevka for previously prepared positions.