Australia training Ukraine soldiers in Ukraine would be ‘powerful move’, Ukrainian MP says

Australia and the UK should start training Ukrainian soldiers on Ukrainian soil in a symbolic act of defiance against Vladimir Putin’s illegal war, now entering its fifth year, a prominent Ukrainian MP has told The Nightly.

Oleksii Goncharenko made the comments speaking exclusively to the Latika Takes podcast in the Black Sea city of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, which he represents, just hours after Russia pounded the city with drone attacks that hit an educational facility, infrastructure and residential buildings.

He said that moving the Australian, British and other allied troops training Ukrainians in the UK to Ukraine would be a helpful and powerful move.

“It is important. First of all it will speed up everything, but most important for me is like what I told you, that would be a symbolic act of our allies to show their commitment to Ukraine,” Mr Goncharenko said.

“By the way, too, that will boost Ukrainian morale very seriously.

“People will believe much more in the future of the country, knowing the French, British, Polish, Estonian soldiers are standing here.

“And that will be a signal to Putin. It’s not so important how many soldiers they will train in this camp. It is important that Putin knows that they’re here.”

As part of Australia’s support for Ukraine, Australian troops have been working alongside the British and other allies to prepare Ukrainians for war at military training camps in the UK as part of Operation Interflex.

Mr Goncharenko said the allied troops could be stationed in the relatively safer parts of Western Ukraine and conduct the same training.

The Ukrainian opposition MP caused a stir when he confronted the French President when he was live on stage at the recent Munich Security Conference, and urged the Emmanuel Macron to send in the Coalition of the Willing, of which Australia is a member, into Ukraine now, rather than wait for a ceasefire.

“I personally asked President Macron in Munich, ‘When Coalition of the Willing will become Coalition of Sending – sending troops to Ukraine,’ Mr Goncharenko said.

“I think that’s what we need, before ceasefire, I mean now.”

But Mr Macron told Mr Goncharenko that such a move would be escalatory.

“What you describe is perfectly true, because since day one, what we decided is to help Ukraine in this resistance war but to refuse to engage in an escalation process with Russia, meaning not to attack Russia on its territory and not to engage boots on the ground,” he said.

“So we still work in this limit.”

Mr Goncharonko said it was a mistake by the Coalition’s two European leaders.

“I think it’s a mistake not only from Macron, but from Great Britain too, which also lead together with France, Coalition of the Willing when they have this formula, we will send troops after the end of war.

“Because Putin’s translation, I’m sure about this, it means that’s one more reason not to end the war.

“So much better signal to Putin will be sending the troops now, not to fight against Russians … just as a backup force with specific tasks.

“For example, protecting Belarusian Ukrainian border, protecting Odesa Harbour, training Ukrainian troops in Western Ukraine, and so on and so on.”

He said that Western and NATO troops would act as protection for Ukraine, as Putin would not attack Europeans, for fear of invoking NATO’s Article 5, which says an attack on one country is an attack on all.

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles attended a special meeting of the Coalition of the Willing that Mr Macron and the UK’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, along with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, convened this week on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Defence Minister Richard Marles was contacted for comment.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said 36 countries attended. Mr Zelensky urged the leaders to help Ukraine upgrade its energy systems and protect them from Russian attacks, as has happened during this winter when temperatures dropped to minus twenty degrees Celsius, depriving residents in Kyiv of heating.

He thanked allies for a new round of air defences, half of which he said arrived on the weekend and said Ukraine was counting on more sanctions targeting Russia’s oil sales.

And he urged Europe to take part in the peace negotiations that the United States is trying to broker, which resume in Geneva on Thursday. He did not raise publicly, sending in Western troops early or at all.

After, the co-chairs issued a statement and said they “urged Russia to engage in the discussions in a meaningful way, and to agree to a full, unconditional ceasefire.”

“They reaffirmed the role that the Coalition of the Willing would play in providing multi-layered security guarantees - as agreed at their meeting in Paris in January 2026 - including through the Multi-National Force for Ukraine, with the support of the United States,” the statement said.

The idea of sending in the Coalition of the Willing before a ceasefire was first proposed by former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson last September and exclusively reported by The Nightly at the time.

Speaking in Kyiv at a special gathering of the Yalta European Strategy held to mark the full-scale invasion, Mr Johnson renewed his call.

“So much of our conversation is about risk and escalation and provoking Putin and all that nonsense.

“One thing the last four years have taught us is that every time we go harder and go bigger, it’s Ukraine that benefits and Putin that loses. And every time we hang back and pussy-foot and dilly-dally and shilly-shally it’s Ukraine that loses.

“We’ve got to learn that lesson and that’s why we should do things like putting boots on the ground, there’s no harm in taking that risk, in the end Ukraine is going to part of the West, why not show that to Putin now, get it in his head.”

But it is not universally supported even inside Ukraine. Last year, Ukraine’s former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he was sceptical the idea would ever get off the ground.

‘“There will be no combat troops in Ukraine. No one is going to fight for us,” he said.

“I rule it out. I rule it out as an option. I do not see, perhaps I’m overly sceptical, but I did not see a situation where US, French, British, German troops fight for Ukraine against Russia in Ukraine.”