Maxime Bronchain, 32, is currently being treated in a military hospital in the capital.
A Frenchman who went to fight alongside Ukrainian soldiers against Russia jumped on a mine at the end of November in the Donbass (East) and is now awaiting his repatriation, organized by the Quai d’Orsay, AFP learned from the person concerned and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“I was wounded on November 27 in a forest, as our battalion began to enter the Lugansk region, northeast of Svatove“, in eastern Ukraine, where fighting is raging against Russian forces, Maxime Bronchain, 32, who is currently being treated in a military hospital in the capital, told AFP by telephone.
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“I jumped on a mine, I am seriously injured in the left foot. An American who was with me jumped on a mine then a second while coming to help me. He died during his evacuation“, Details the Frenchman, who was part of a reconnaissance unit of around twenty foreign fighters, “including 5 Frenchin the International Legion.
He has undergone five operations since his injury, and refused amputation but now fears losing his foot. In contact with the French embassy in Ukraine, he is now waiting to be repatriated to France. “There are high risks of infection, and Ukrainians are in shortage of morphine“, worries his brother Florent, contacted by AFP.
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The Quai d’Orsay recalls “the risks associated with traveling to Ukraine”
“The French Embassy in Ukraine, in connection with the crisis and support center, provides the necessary assistance to our compatriot, as we do for all French people in difficulty abroad.commented the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, assuring that “given his situation, our compatriot will be transported outside Ukraine for evacuation to France“.
The Quai d’Orsaywould like to remind you on this occasion of the risks associated with traveling to Ukraine, which is classified in the red zone. Any travel of any kind is formally discouraged.“, he adds in a message to AFP.
Employed in the catering industry in the east of France, Maxime Bronchain decided to go to Ukraine in May, “to respond to the call of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky“, who, since the Russian invasion of his country at the end of February, had openly invited foreigners to join a “international legionto defend Ukraine, he says.
A soldier for a year in the French Army when he was 18, “I wanted to be useful“, he testifies. “Here people welcome us as liberators, they take us in their arms“. Father of a child who remained in France, Maxime intends to marry a Ukrainian from Odessa, met in the country at war.
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