Berlin will not support France’s proposal to send Western instructors to Ukraine to train its army, German news outlet Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday, citing sources.
Earlier reports said that French President Emmanuel Macron had been trying to form a coalition willing to deploy specialists to train the Ukrainian military on the ground. Macron confirmed that at a press-briefing on Friday, adding that several nations had already agreed to join the effort.
According to information obtained by Welt, on the French president’s orders, the chief of staff of the French Army, Gen. Thierry Burkhard, wrote to some of his NATO colleagues last week inviting them to take part in a training mission in Ukraine as part of a multinational “coalition of the willing.” The letter was reportedly addressed to the US and around ten European countries, including the UK, Poland, the Netherlands, the Baltic states, Denmark, and Sweden.
Germany, however, was not included in the dispatch, the newspaper claimed, because it had already made clear during recent negotiations in Brussels that German soldiers would not take part in a mission on Ukrainian soil. According to the publication, the German government, along with Italy and Spain, has expressed concern that training Kiev’s troops on site could escalate the conflict and drag the West into a war with Russia.
Macron started pitching the idea of a troop deployment to Ukraine in February, sparking pushback from most NATO allies. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly voiced opposition to sending soldiers to Ukraine, saying that Berlin is opposed to any action that could turn NATO, or Germany in particular, into a party to the Ukraine conflict.
The US has also reportedly rejected the French leader’s idea of sending instructors to Kiev. According to a Politico report on Friday, US President Joe Biden expressed concern that NATO troops deployed to Ukraine, even as trainers, could end up in the line of fire. At a press-briefing the same day, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said that Biden has repeatedly stressed “there’s not going to be US boots on the ground in combat in Ukraine.”
Moscow has long condemned the West for providing military aid to Kiev, and warned against sending foreign military personnel to Ukraine, which it has said would be considered legitimate targets for attack.