I don't understand why Zelenskyy and parliament don't ask for help from NATO troops - Ukrainian officer

He said this on Espreso TV.

"I still can't understand why President Zelenskyy doesn't ask for the help of NATO troops, and why the parliament doesn't vote for such an appeal. If we are talking about appealing to NATO now, then this may be one story. Okay, then let's not appeal to the Alliance, but there is a position of each country separately, namely the position of France, Denmark, the Baltic countries, Finland, who said they were considering such an issue. I think they will consider it more actively if Ukraine makes an official request. I can't understand why not," commented the Armed Forces officer.

According to him, for example, if we take the Patriot system, the specialists and units that service these systems could be on the territory of the Lviv region and hold the positions. And, for example, French specialists, together with SAMP/T, could go to Zaporizhzhia or Odesa and make an umbrella over the city.

"I didn't see any problems with NATO when the French Legion entered Africa, 10,000 of them. I would not mind if they, for example, reinforced our northwestern border with Belarus, thus freeing up our units that are sitting there at the border to go on rotation with the guys near the town of Chasiv Yar. I can't understand why President Zelenskyy won't make such an appeal. Moreover, he said in an interview that Ukraine is fighting, don't worry, French people, your children will not fight for us while we are fighting. We have problems with mobilization, manning, and training. If we are talking about the F-16s that we are supposed to receive, then each of these aircraft needs at least 10-20 service personnel. Why couldn't some kind of aircraft maintenance unit come here? It would have been a rear unit, not a frontline one," the Special Forces officer said.

Ihor Lapin believes that President Zelenskyy should make such an official appeal personally to each country that has expressed support or at least started a discussion on this issue. It is necessary not to address all the countries of the NATO bloc at once, but to make separate appeals, and someone will support Ukraine, and this will make it easier for Ukrainians to fight.

• On February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the deployment of Western ground troops to combat Russian aggression should not be ruled out in the future.
• On February 29, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that Western leaders should not rule out the possibility of sending NATO troops to Ukraine.
• Czech President Petr Pavel said that support for Ukraine by NATO troops directly on its territory would not violate any international norms.
• On March 5, it is reported that Canada is considering sending military instructors to Ukraine, but there are no conditions for this at this time.
• On April 3, President of Finland Alexander Stubb said that his country would support Ukraine in all possible ways, but would not send troops.