Some 2,000 soldiers would be sent in the “initial stage” of the operation, Sergey Naryshkin said
France is preparing its forces for deployment to Ukraine, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin claimed in a statement on Tuesday. Paris allegedly seeks to send as many as 2,000 troops to Ukraine, he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that he “cannot exclude” the possibility of Western soldiers being sent to aid Kiev in its fight against Moscow, branding Russia an “adversary” while denying Paris was “waging war” against it.
In the statement on Tuesday, the SVR chief said the French Armed Forces had become “concerned” about the rising number of French [mercenary] nationals dying in Ukraine.
The casualty level has supposedly surpassed a “psychological threshold” and could trigger protests, the statement said, adding that Macron’s government was concealing this information and “delaying” the moment it would have to be revealed.
According to the spy chief, the French military is worried about the government’s plans to send the contingent to Ukraine, considering that such an operation would be difficult to conduct without Russia noticing.
The French soldiers would indeed become “a legitimate priority target for attacks by the Russian Armed Forces,” Naryshkin said.
The claims come as the chief of staff of the French Army, Gen. Pierre Schill, said in an interview on Tuesday that France is prepared to take part in the “toughest engagements” militarily, and is ready to face any international developments. He added that Paris could assemble a division of 20,000 troops within 30 days and an army of 60,000 by joining with divisions from other NATO allies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also claimed this week that Western mercenaries, including French nationals, are dying in Ukraine “in large numbers.” Commenting on a potential NATO deployment to Ukraine, the president also warned that this would be “one step shy of a full-scale World War III.”
(non-archived link: https://www.rt.com/news/594517-france-prepare-deploy-troops-ukraine/)
God, this just keeps getting more depressing.
I wish Soviet Union had never collapsed.
Why depressing? If the West wants to accelerate their complete destruction, and a few thousand frogs leap gleefully to their death, I say let them. As long as they keep trickling into their deathtrap and not flooding with poise and planning and coordination, the West is ironically just bleeding themselves on Russian bullets.
Because it’s not just about the West losing.
It means more and more unnecessary deaths and suffering, it could even mean that all of humanity dies and suffers as a result once nukes come into play, and I think that’s really depressing when it’s easily avoidable.
That’s very fair, I guess I see it as more war and unnecessary death are already on the itinerary, the Western hegemony seems to refuse to die quietly, so I hope the final act plays out with them foolishly wasting 1% of their forces at a time instead of resolutely commiting all forces and causing an even more devastating conflict all around. As someone said above, the French may be a useful vassal the to US in a future war with China, so them wasting their forces prematurely and possibly without glowing blessing from the US is all good things.
Yeah, I feel that, let’s just hope none of us glow anytime soon.
Seconded, 100%
If I get drone bombed I’ll call you from the other side
I was downplaying inevitable Russian casualties with French involvement, I apologize. I just hope this wicked beast collapses as soon as possible.
If I get killed, I’d be pissed off too.