President Emmanuel Macron welcomes 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers to be trained on French soil

French President Emmanuel Macron has changed his stance and backed a proposal to train Ukrainian soldiers in France as calls mount for Australia to deploy troops to Europe.

The French government confirmed it has coached 40 Ukrainian soldiers since February, predominantly providing education on how to use French Caesar self-propelled guns.

In contrast, as of June neighbouring ally UK has trained nearly 5,000 Ukrainian early recruits under its Operation Interflex program.

The operation aims to provide basic military skills such as infantry tactics, weapon handling, patrolling, first aid and evaluation in five weeks, before returning them to the frontline.

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It signifies a big shift in France’s position to train soldiers after French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu previously stated Mr Macron wished to “wish to remain a ‘balancing power.’”

However, when speaking to French newspaper Le Parisien on Saturday Mr Lecornu confirmed that the European military power has changed its approach after being criticised for not doing enough locally.

"The president... has approved a training plan that will allow up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers to be welcomed in France," Mr Lecornu told Le Parisien.

"They will be assigned to our units for several weeks.”

The minister for Armed Forces said there would be three levels of training, general combat, specific needs addressed like logistics and then training on how to use defence material provided by Western allies.

France's President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed Ukranian soldiers to be trained in his nation and return to combat. Picture: AP Photo/Petr David Josek

French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced the training as well as further military assistance on Saturday. Picture: Ludovic Marin/AP

“It will not be in a belligerent fashion because we are not at war. We are helping a country that is at war,” he said.

France will also provide an unspecified amount of Crotale air defence systems to help defend Ukrainian skies, after a tragic week which saw Russia brutally launch 83 missile attacks and kill 14 civilians.

The minister also confirmed six more Cesar howitzers - on top of the 18 to date - which accurately strike targets more than 40 kilometres away.

Earlier in the week following a visit with Defence Minister Richard Marles, Ukraine's Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said the Albanese Government needed to step up its military assistance and support of Ukraine following the attacks.

“It is important that the Australian government makes a very strong statement, condemning the brutal Russian war crimes… Stands up its military assistance for Ukraine,” Mr Myroshnychenko told ABC Breakfast on Tuesday.

Kyiv was one of the devastating sites for the 83 missiles that Russian forces launched last Monday. Picture: Serhii Mykhalchuk/Getty Images

“The only way we can send a strong message to Putin is to provide more assistance to Ukraine.”

The Prime Minister responded to Ukraine’s plea and confirmed the federal government was considering sending Australian troops to assist in training Ukrainian forces.

“We will give consideration to that, we are in discussions with the department of defence and I've spoken to Richard marles the defence minister,” Mr Albanese said.

It is understood the Australian soldiers would be sent to Europe to offer training for Ukrainian troops, not deployed to battle zones.