I can't call on foreign troops to fight in Ukraine because of Russian hype – Zelenskyy

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he supports initiatives involving foreign states sending training or border guard missions to Ukraine, but he cannot encourage other states to send troops to fight.

Source: an interview with the president on the national joint 24/7 newscast

Quote: "Emmanuel [Macron – ed.] has several proposals. I supported – publicly and in a private conversation with him – the idea of our guys being trained here, and the mission coming from a particular country. I think that would be much faster than sending our brigades away and then they come back and have to get combat experience on the equipment here as well.

The second one is to build repair hubs to repair all Western equipment in Ukraine, in certain regions, underground, etc. This works, and we are already doing some things and can see how much faster it is than sending a tank or armoured vehicle away, which takes a month or two or three. With some pieces of equipment, it would be three months before we got them back. So I fully support doing this in Ukraine.

As for the border mission, he [Macron – ed.] suggested that ‘we could be on the border’. How can we refuse? If they come, we will support them."

Details: At the same time, Zelenskyy commented on discussions about the possibility of foreign troops being deployed to Ukraine "in the strict sense of the word". He said he had not heard the details of this discussion between Macron and his partners and would like to hear them from the French president.

Quote: "But I want to explain my attitude. I can’t say publicly today: 'Yes, come on, armies of the world, come to Ukraine and fight.' Because Russia would hype it up all over the world, they would start raising awareness in other countries that they mustn’t send their children to fight, that it’s not their war, and they would start splitting the unity between European and NATO countries. So that would be risky for us.

Because if I spoke about such an initiative, Russia would do all it could to stop us from receiving military assistance from other countries. Societies would be divided, they would put pressure on the leaders of their countries, and they would slow down supplies to us.

But if there are initiatives from other countries, then let's be frank: we do have some volunteer formations where people who are citizens of other countries come and fight for Ukraine. Ukraine will never object if anyone wants to help Ukraine."

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