A FRENCH MILITARY BASE, France—A French military task force with a festive name—“Champagne”—is wrapping up a mission that’s no party: training a whole new brigade of several thousand Ukrainian troops who will be joining the fight against Russia’s invasion armed with France-supplied tanks, artillery canons and other heavy weaponry.
The approaching return to Ukraine of the “Anne of Kyiv” brigade, after more than two months of intense military training in eastern and southern France, comes at another critical juncture in the almost three-year war.
When deployed, the French-trained and -equipped brigade named after a Kyiv princess who became a queen of France could prove to be a formidable force on the battlefields. It will eventually be made up of 4,500 troops, formed of infantry battalions, plus engineers, artillery teams and other specialists, French authorities have previously said.
The French military dedicated around 1,500 of its own soldiers to the “Champagne” task force that has been teaching the Ukrainians how to fight effectively together and how to use and maintain their France-supplied weaponry.
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