There it was, deployed in a position some 15 kilometers from the Russian front lines: the French Caesar self-propelled howitzer, concealed under camouflage netting. The cloud cover was so low on this last morning of 2024 that the commander of several self-propelled artillery units took the opportunity to pay his men a quick visit. "The sky is with us," said the 26-year-old senior officer, "Cossack" by his nom de guerre, rejoicing in the fog that was limiting Russian drone flights. Along the edge of the woods between two fields, a few men were smoking cigarettes, drinking tea and trying to keep warm in a makeshift shelter dug into the black, frozen ground.
Just two months ago, far from here, they were all taking part in training in eastern France, with the aim of forming the 155th mechanized brigade, dubbed the "Anne of Kyiv" and equipped by France. The announcement of the unit's creation was made by French President Emmanuel Macron during the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, attended by his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Over the course of nine weeks, this "unprecedented, unique program," according to French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, would train some 2,300 men, joined by other soldiers trained in Ukraine, for a total of 4,500 men.
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