French Defense Ministry says Ukrainian soldiers deserted during training in the country

Several dozen Ukrainian soldiers deserted while undergoing training in France, AFP reported, citing a French army official.

The official described the number of deserters as “very marginal” relative to the total number of trainees. The soldiers were housed in French barracks and were allowed to leave the premises, the official noted.

The soldiers were under disciplinary rules “imposed by the Ukrainian command,” but desertion is not considered a criminal offense in France.

“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 military official explained.

According to media reports, 2,300 Ukrainian troops from the 155th Mechanized Brigade, which is now fighting near Pokrovsk in the Donbas region, trained in France. Most of the soldiers were conscripts with no combat experience and were accompanied by 300 Ukrainian supervisors. Another 2,200 soldiers from the brigade underwent training in Ukraine.

In late December, Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov reported that Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation had launched an inquiry into desertion cases within the brigade. He claimed that 1,700 soldiers had deserted before seeing combat, while another 50 fled during the training in France.