Could France's offer of help shift conflict?

Macron downplays military gambit, but a line has been crossed

- ALLAN WOODS

Workers survey an apartment building damaged in Friday's Ukrainian missile attack in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region. Regional authorities said 60 people were wounded in the attack.

Up until now, helping Ukraine has been a moral question — one about the defence of democracy — for the country’s western allies.

This defence has been done from a distance following a pullout of western forces from Ukraine on the eve of Russia’s 2022 invasion. Western money and weapons have gone into Ukraine, while Ukrainian soldiers have had to travel out of country to learn western war tactics.

With France’s announcement Friday it will be sending military trainers into the country to teach local soldiers how to fend off Russian invaders, helping Ukraine could increasingly be a question that puts western lives in the balance.

France is the first country to send its military personnel into Ukraine, but President Emmanuel Macron said a coalition is being formed of like-minded countries willing to step across a self-imposed red line and get to work in the war zone.

So far, Poland and the Balkan states, which are much closer to the fighting, have expressed a willingness to follow France’s lead. Canada, too, has at least left open that door, after signing a 10-year security agreement during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Kyiv in February.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Defence Minister Bill Blair said, “Canadian training is ongoing in Latvia, Poland and the U.K. and our plan is to continue training in those locations.”

But the Canada-Ukraine security pact envisions Canadian troops “returning to conduct associated (training) activities in Ukraine when conditions permit.”