Ukraine is preparing for French military instructors’ arrival, reported Bloomberg News on May 28.
This announcement resulted from a high-level phone call between Ukraine’s Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu.
“I’ve already signed the documents that will allow the first French instructors to visit our training centers soon and familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and staff,” Syrskyi said on Telegram.
Earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that “nothing should be ruled out” when asked about sending NATO troops to Ukraine. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has repeatedly expressed readiness to send professional soldiers for training missions to Ukraine. In March, Czech President Petr Pavel said sending military trainers would be possible.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that NATO members are moving closer to sending instructors into Ukraine to train its troops.
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that U.S./NATO military “trainers” will be sent to Ukraine, according to the Times. “We’ll get there eventually, over time.”
Mark Episkopos says in Responsible Statecraft: “Brown’s comments tacitly concede two realities that Western officials have been loath to acknowledge: the Ukrainian war effort is slowly crumbling and cannot be sustained without a steady escalation of Western involvement.
“Yet there is a third factor that should be of serious concern to U.S. and European leaders: sending NATO personnel into Ukraine … [will] embroil NATO states, including the U.S., in a shooting war with Russian forces.”
First trainers, then combat troops
Yes, sending so-called military trainers is, in fact, an aggressive escalation. Imperialist military wars can start with “military trainers.” During the First Indochina War (1946-1954), French military trainers in Vietnam began an escalation of the imperialist war on Vietnam, eventually leading to the deployment of French combat troops. This eventually led to U.S. involvement, first with trainers, then followed by tens of thousands of combat troops.
On May 14, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an unannounced visit to Kiev, vowed Washington would take “tangible steps” to ensure Ukraine’s addition to the NATO military alliance, RFE/RL reported.
Of course, NATO is already deeply involved in Ukraine, supplying weapons and training to the Ukrainian military.
On May 20, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urging him to authorize the use of U.S.-supplied long-range weapons to strike deep within Russian territory. The letter reflects Congress’ growing move to escalate U.S. military operations in Ukraine, including expansion beyond Ukraine’s borders into Russia.
The letter, authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Michael Turner and other members of Congress, requests authorization for the use of U.S. weapons against strategic targets inside Russia and calls on the Defense Department to provide training for more Ukrainian pilots on operating F-16 fighter jets.
2014 coup regime is no democracy
The Ukraine regime was imposed in February 2014 by a U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the elected government. The far-right regime represents Western imperialist interests, local oligarchs and neo-Nazis. The residents of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions did not recognize the new regime. In April 2014, in the Donbass mining region, the autonomous Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) were declared, and the Minsk Accords laid out the process for their recognition.
The Kiev regime never implemented the Minsk Accords and began military operations against Donetsk and Luhansk. Bombing and air raids targeted the civilian population, killing at least 15,000. Kiev massed an occupation army in the region. In February 2022, the DPR and LPR asked Russia for aid. That’s when Russia began its Special Military Operation, sending troops into DPR and LPR to secure their territorial integrity.
The Kiev regime declared martial law in 2022. All elections have been canceled. Elections for the Ukrainian parliament, where all opposition parties have been removed, were canceled. Presidential elections were scheduled for March 2024 but were canceled. Volodymyr Zelensky said, “Now is not the time for elections.”
There is no popular support for Zelensky, the regime, or its war. The Ukrainian population is being wiped out. At the start of 2022, Ukraine’s population was estimated to be around 42 million. By mid-2023, estimates suggest the population in Kiev-controlled areas has declined to as low as 28 million. Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country, and the birth rate has plummeted to a historic low in the last two years, reaching levels unseen in the past 300 years.
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