France first announced it would help train Ukrainian soldiers in October 2022, and plans to upgrade a whole battalion are now well underway.
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French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Thursday in Paris for bilateral talks.
The visit is meant to "reaffirm France's determination to continue to provide, over the long term and with all of its partners, unwavering support to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people," said the Élysée in a press release.
The meeting comes a day after Emmanuel Macron visited a military base in eastern France where Ukrainian troops are trained by French soldiers.
The exact location of the military camp is kept secret for security concerns.
Macron was accompanied by French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umerov.
A total of 2,300 Ukrainian soldiers are set to be trained in the camp over the next two months.
Most of them are young recruits who have already completed a basic training course.
“They already had a few weeks' training in Ukraine before coming to France. We teach them our expertise and operating methods. We do this as a partnership, it's like an exchange of knowledge," said a non-commissioned officer and infantry group leader who was not authorised to be named for security reasons.
Everything is done to replicate the exact conditions on the battlefield – trenches have even been dug specifically for the training.
French military personnel have had to adapt to the Ukrainian army’s needs in their fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion, explained one military personnel.
"One specific threat that we had to consider during the training is drones. We had to adapt to this when digging the trenches and also altering the camouflage," said a French Army captain in charge of the trench network.
In addition, France is equipping the brigade with 150 armoured vehicles, including AMX light tanks, Caesar cannons and other weapons.
France is the first country to train an entire brigade on its soil. "In terms of the number of soldiers trained and the duration of the training, this is an unprecedented exercise," the Elysée said.
France has already trained more than 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the Elysée.