‘Dozens’ of Ukraine soldiers deserted while training in France

PARIS: Several dozen Ukrainian soldiers have deserted while training in France, a French army official told AFP on Monday. “There have been a certain number of desertions, but they remain very marginal given the volume of people who have undergone training,” a French army official told AFP.

“They were in French barracks, they had the right to go out.” According to the French army official, the Ukrainian soldiers who were trained in France were subject to a disciplinary regime “imposed by the Ukrainian command”.

“We don´t criminalise desertion in France”, the official said. “If someone deserted, a French prosecutor had no authority to arrest that individual. And the right granted to the Ukrainian authorities on French soil is just a disciplinary right.” The French army trained on French territory 2,300 soldiers from a brigade named “Anne of Kyiv” after a Kyiv-born princess who married French King Henri I in the 11th century.