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UKRAINE

French Foreign Legion troops desert to join fighting in Ukraine

The French army has prevented 14 Ukrainian members of the Foreign Legion from travelling east with the possible intention of joining the fighting in their homeland, their commander said on Wednesday, but a further 25 Ukrainian-born soldiers have already left.

French Foreign Legion troops desert to join fighting in Ukraine
Illustration photo: Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion march on the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade. Photo by Michel Euler / POOL / AFP

The Legion has reported 25 desertions by Ukrainian-born soldiers, with around a dozen of them believed to be planning to help the fight against the Russian army.

The Legion has “cut them loose”, commander Alain Lardet told AFP. “They are fighting for a cause that it is not my role to judge.”

Nine in the group that were stopped were on leave but not authorised to travel abroad when they were stopped Tuesday in Paris. The others were absent without leave or considered missing, added Lardet. 

They were arrested on a coach headed for Poland neighbouring Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion for the past week.

The Foreign Legion, an elite corps comprising around 9,500 soldiers, is the only French army unit in which foreign nationals can enlist.

READ ALSO What you need to know about the French Foreign Legion

They qualify for French nationality after several years of service, or sooner if they distinguish themselves in battle.

It was not immediately clear whether the 14 were planning to join the fighting in Ukraine, or simply help their families who had fled Ukraine, the military command said. No weapons or other unauthorised equipment was found on them.

But some of the civilian passengers on the bus were carrying gear that led the authorities to believe that they were planning to join the fighting.

The Foreign Legion counts 710 soldiers of Ukrainian origin of whom 210 have been naturalised, and 450 Russian-born troops.

While there has been “no tension between the communities” since Russia invaded its neighbour, Ukrainians in the Foreign Legion have been “very worried for their families”, Lardet said.

They can apply for an exceptional two-week leave to travel to one of Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to assist their families fleeing the war, but are not authorised to cross into Ukraine itself, he said.

On Tuesday, 25 such permits were granted, with several more expected Wednesday, but none of the Ukrainians arrested on Tuesday were in possession of such a document.

The nine who had regular leave for France only are unlikely to be punished because they had not been told properly that there was now a legal way to join their families, the commander said.

But the five others will be ordered into military detention for an unspecified number of days, having committed “a serious violation of the Legion members’ code of honour”, he said.

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UKRAINE

France to transfer Mirage-2000 fighter jets to Ukraine

France will transfer Mirage-2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train their Ukrainian pilots as part of a new military cooperation with Kyiv as it fights the Russian invasion, President Emmanuel Macron announced.

France to transfer Mirage-2000 fighter jets to Ukraine

“Tomorrow we will launch a new cooperation and announce the transfer of Mirage 2000-5,” fighter jets to Ukraine made by French manufacturer Dassault and train their Ukrainian pilots in France, Macron told French TV.

Macron said he would offer to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when the two meet for talks at the Elysée Palace in Paris on Friday that the pilots be trained from this summer.

“You normally need between five, six months [training]. So by the end of the year there will be pilots. The pilots will be trained in France,” he said.

He did not specify how many of the fighter jets would be delivered, and the defence ministry did not elaborate when contacted by AFP.

Macron said Ukraine faced a ‘huge challenge’ training soldiers as it sought to mobilise tens of thousands more troops to go to the front.

He said France would equip and train a brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers so they can defend themselves when they return to Ukraine from training.

Kyiv has been pushing Europe to increase its military support, with Russia in recent months gaining the upper hand on the battlefield.

Zelensky’s visit to France, where on Thursday he attended ceremonies for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and crossed paths with US President Joe Biden, is seen as a crucial time to drum up more help.

Macron said Ukraine has asked Western allies to send military instructors to train its forces on its soil to meet the growing challenge to build up troop numbers.

“The Ukrainian president and his minister of defence asked all the allies – 48 hours ago in an official letter – saying ‘we need you to train us quicker and that you do this on our soil’,” Macron said.

There had been speculation that Macron could swiftly announce the sending of French instructors to Ukraine, even after his talks with Zelensky on Friday.

But he said France and its allies would come together and decide and also emphasised that he did not believe any such moves by Paris were ‘escalatory’.

“We are working with our partners and we will act on the basis of a collective decision,” he said.

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