genuinely curious, are there any other sources for this? I've tried to find other news outlets covering this and I can't find anything whatsoever

edit: the author of this article, Stephen Bryen, also made this a post on his substack and within the comment section of the post he cites some sources from twitter and Russian media that report the supposed deployment of these French Foreign Legionnaires as early as April 12th.

https://weapons.substack.com/p/france-sends-troops-to-ukraine/comment/55480014?utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

From one of the Russian sources cited in his comment ( https://en.topwar.ru/240367-rossijskie-resursy-pervoe-podrazdelenie-francuzskogo-inostrannogo-legiona-perebrosheno-v-slavjansk.html ) , they say:

-The first French military arrived in Ukraine; a unit from the French Foreign Legion was transferred to the Slavyansk area. This was reported by the Russian TG channel "Military Chronicle".

According to available information, a unit of one hundred people from the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the French Foreign Legion was transferred to Slavyansk. Apparently, this is the advance group that the rest will follow. The French military appeared in the city the day before; they are based at the location of the 54th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and move around the city only accompanied by the Ukrainian military.

The unit reportedly includes artillery reconnaissance specialists, as well as an engineering group specializing in fortification and field fortifications. Most likely, the French will build up the defense of Slavyansk in case of a breakthrough by Russian troops.

Military correspondent Yuri Kotenok also reports this; he talks about the transfer of the first units of French mercenaries to the Slavyansk area. According to him, they arrived at the disposal of the 7th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and not the 54th, but these are already details. However, he clarifies that the information is unconfirmed.

"We are talking about an engineering group and specialists aviation reconnaissance of the 3rd infantry regiment of the legion, which arrived at the location of the 7th ombre of the Ukrainian Armed Forces"

• writes Kitten in his TG channel.

For our part, we note that we can neither confirm nor deny this information, so everything is at your discretion. At the same time, there is no smoke without fire.