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.
Russia’s military and top officials have repeatedly pointed to the presence of French mercenaries already fighting for Kiev on the ground.
In the statement on Tuesday, the SVR chief said the French Armed Forces had become “concerned” about the rising number of French 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.
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.”
Cross posted this from lemmygrad
Just last week there was an article where
was trying to posture but a bunch of other people in the french government clarified that all boots on the ground would be in support roles like demining and supply lines. They aren't going to do shit lol. At most 30k dumbasses will show up to be water boys to the azov for a week and then pack up and go on home. And it will be lauded by the press as the greatest french victory since they killed all the africans who fought for them.
I honestly hope you're right. I just didn't see the west as capable of fighting peer opponents.
France hasn't fought a peer opponent since it got its ass kicked in Vietnam afaik.
They really haven't; if they go into this, the results will melt the psyche of every westoid.
They won't get a tenth of the success they anticipate. The reality will hit them so hard that they might just start another war in the sahel to boost westoid moral.
These guys are going in to help defend Odessa I think. They already acknowledge they can be legitimately targeted by the Russian federation.