“A few dozen desertions” of Ukrainian soldiers trained in France, according to the French army

The French army, which trained a Ukrainian brigade in France before it went to the front, noted “a few dozen” of desertions during training, according to the general staff, while a Ukrainian commander admitted “problems” within this unit. “There have been a certain number of desertions, but these remain very marginal given the volume of people who have been trained”a French general staff official told Agence France-Presse on Monday.

According to him, the trained soldiers were subject to “a diet (…) imposed by the Ukrainian command ». But “we do not criminalize desertion in France”he stressed. “If someone deserted, a French prosecutor had no authority to arrest that individual. And the right granted to the Ukrainian authorities on French soil is just a disciplinary right. »

He clarified that he did not yet have the consolidated figures, but estimated that it was “of the order of a few dozen” desertions on French territory.

Named “Anne de kyiv”, named after the wife of the King of France Henri I^erthe brigade adopted the slogan of the Battle of Verdun as its motto: “They will not pass. » Of this unit of 4,500 soldiers, the general staff, three infantry battalions and their support (engineering, artillery, ground-air defense and reconnaissance) were trained in France, i.e. around 2,000 men, 90% of conscripts with no combat experience, accompanied by 300 Ukrainian supervisors. The rest of the unit was trained in Ukraine.

“I confirm of course that there were problems with the command and the training process”admitted the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Mykhaïlo Drapaty, to several media, including Agence France-Presse, but “perhaps not to scale (…) presented ».

“I don’t really see what could be characterized as an abuse of power”affirmed for his part the head of the French general staff. “In any case, there is nothing that has been reported concerning the parking of Ukrainians in France or what happened during these training sessions”. He insisted that the training had been “compliant” to the wishes of Ukrainians, in matters “equipment, training time and level”.