Reuters:

French President Emmanuel Macron has backed a proposal to train a large number of Ukrainian soldiers in the country, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu told newspaper Le Parisien on Saturday.

“The president… has approved a training plan that will allow up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers to be welcomed in France,” he said.

“They will be assigned to our units for several weeks,” he said, adding that military training for the use of Caesar howitzers had previously been offered to Ukrainian soldiers.

“But now it’s a change of scale,” Lecornu said.

The minister said France had delivered 18 Caesar howitzers so far to Ukraine and that talks were going on to send six more. On top of these, France is also weighing the delivery of ground-to-ground missiles, Lecornu said.

He also pledged that France would provide Crotale short-range anti-air missiles, which are used to intercept low-flying missiles and aircraft.

“The number (of Crotales) is being determined with the Ukrainians, but it will be significant to allow them to defend their sky,” Lecornu said.

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