France to equip another brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

29 October, 2024 Training of Ukrainian soldiers by French instructors, April 2024. Photo: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP Ukraine has made an agreement with the French government to equip another army brigade with French weapons as part of its military aid to Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced this on his social media page. "The third year of the full-scale war is underway, and our soldiers on the front line need to restore their strength. Therefore, we are urgently working to equip our brigades.

We are already cooperating to that end: France has equipped one brigade, and we have an agreement to prepare and equip another one," he said. This means training 2,300 Ukrainian soldiers for the new 155th Mechanized Brigade named after Anna of Kyiv. In addition, France has equipped the newly created unit with its own weapons, including armored vehicles and artillery.

According to the President, another unnamed brigade will receive the same equipment. This is likely to be one of the 160th brigades that started to form this August.

Ukrainian recruits in front of a French VAB armored personnel carrier, April 2024. Photo: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP

"We invite [allies] to join us in creating Scandinavian brigades to demonstrate your continued commitment to the defense of Europe," Zelensky added.

In this way, he offered to support the previously proposed "Northern Brigade" project, which involved Scandinavian countries training and equipping a Ukrainian battalion. In September, Zelenskyi said that the country needed to equip 14 new brigades with Western weapons, but the pace of equipment supply did not allow this. "This is happening quite slowly.

We have not equipped even four brigades out of this package," the President stated. As a reminder, as part of the large May military aid package, Sweden agreed to transfer its entire fleet of Pansarbandvagn 302 tracked armored personnel carriers, which could reach as many as 200 units. At the same time, Denmark announced the purchase of Ukrainian-made weapons for the Defense Forces, totaling £600 million.

Earlier, the country had already purchased 18 2C22 Bohdana wheeled howitzers in this manner.

Ukrainian self-propelled artillery systems "Bohdana," 2024.

Photo: Danish Ministry of Defense

Furthermore, Ukraine continues to receive Leopard 1 tanks funded jointly by Germany and Denmark, which undergo a long cycle of overhaul and modernization before being shipped.