Ukrainian Brigade 155 training in France receives a visit from Macron

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President Emmanuel Macron was able to speak with Ukrainian soldiers on Wednesday in a military camp in the Grand Est that was not identified for security reasons. “How’s it going? Does it meet your needs?” he asked in front of men wearing the red and black badge adorned with a scorpion of the 155th brigade.

The Head of State announced in June the training and complete equipment of a brigade during the visit to France of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Allied Landings in Normandy. Accompanied by French Ministers of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu and Ukrainian Ministers of Defense Roustem Oumerov, he insisted on their needs and expectations.

“It’s about synchronizing doctrines. Battlefield management is constantly evolving,” replied an officer whose country aims to join NATO as quickly as possible to ward off the future Russian threat. “You have also changed things a lot through your action and your resistance,” added the president during this exchange in the Ukrainians’ home, with table football and pinball machines. The French Army will train and train 2,300 soldiers from the brigade, named Anne of kyiv, named after the wife of the King of France Henry I, a first on this scale in a European country.

“Feedback”

Brigade 155 must be “good for war”, that is to say “functional, at the front, from the end of this training”, specified an advisor to the Elysée. This must be spread over two months (October-November). The training is based on “feedback” from the Ukrainian battlefield, valuable information also for the French, more familiar with the Sahel, who thus understand a different experience.

“Their feedback also enriches us in taking into account certain threats such as drones,” notes Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffroy. “It also allows us to benefit from a well-built infrastructure with considerable resources,” he also observes.

On the ground, soldiers operate in trenches identical to the Ukrainian battlefield, in real conditions, under stress, chains of fire and drone overflights, a novelty of 21st century warfare. During training on Wednesday, Caesar cannon fire also echoed in the distance, in the middle of exchanges of fire between Ukrainians and enemy forces, under pouring rain. “The training is going very well. The Ukrainian soldiers are progressing faster than we thought,” explained Colonel Paul, who heads the training of the Ukrainian soldiers, to Ministers Lecornu and Oumerov.

A harsh winter

The living conditions are also very rustic, between prefabs and country showers, as close as possible to the Ukrainian context. Of this brigade of 4,500 soldiers, the staff, three infantry battalions and their support (engineering, artillery, ground-air surveillance and reconnaissance) will be trained in France, the rest – or 2,200 – in Ukraine by Ukrainians.

France will equip it with 128 forward armored vehicles (VAB), 18 Caesar cannons, “more than 18” AMX-10s, 20 Milan anti-tank missile posts and 10 large TRM 10,000 military trucks designed for missions support in difficult terrain. Emmanuel Macron also announced in June the delivery of Mirage 2000-5 fighter planes to the Ukrainians. Pilots and mechanics are already being trained on the aircraft that will be sold.

France has already trained a total of more than 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers in various fields (infantry combat, artillery, maintenance of transferred equipment, health, etc.). Ukraine could face its harshest winter since the Russian invasion of the country on February 24, 2022, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has warned. Ukrainian forces continue to lose ground in Donbass, in the east of the country, where the Russian army announces almost every day the capture of new villages, getting closer to the strategic town of Prokovsk.

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