France preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine: SVR
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According to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief, revelations of French deaths in Ukraine may lead to unrest on the streets of Paris.
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French President Emmanuel Macron reviews troops during a "prise d'armes" military ceremony in Paris on February 19, 2024. (AFP)
France is prepared to send an army to Ukraine, with roughly 2,000 service members deployed in the first stage.
According to Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergei Naryshkin on Tuesday, Paris has plans to send an army unit to Ukraine, deploying nearly 2,000 troops in the beginning stage.
Naryshkin divulged that France believes the number of French troops dead in Ukraine is now "above a psychological level."
He accused the current French government of disregarding the lives of "ordinary Frenchmen", emphasizing that SVR intelligence indicates that a "detachment is already being readied to deploy to Ukraine. It would be roughly 2,000 persons at the beginning stage."
He said that publishing sensitive data on French losses may lead to unrest from French citizens.
France also confesses that it has not experienced such military losses overseas since the Algerian War in the twentieth century.
“The French military fears that it will not be able to transfer such a significant military unit to Ukraine quietly. Thus, it will become a priority legitimate target for attacks from the Russian armed forces."
Read more: Poking at Macron, FM says 'French people will not die for Ukraine'
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron declared in an interview broadcasted by TF2 and France 2 that there will be no "lasting peace" in Ukraine unless Kiev establishes control over all the territories it has lost, including Russia's Crimean Peninsula.
The French President also described Russia as France's "adversary", while simultaneously stressing that France is merely "supporting" Ukraine and has not been "waging war on Russia."
"Certainly, today, Russia is an adversary. The Kremlin regime is an adversary," Macron explained before adding, "We are doing everything so that it can put Russia in check because, I will tell you very simply, there is no lasting peace if there is no sovereignty, a return to the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, including Crimea."
The most recent comments from the French President were not well-received in Russia, where Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov remarked that Macron apparently “won’t mind increasing the degree of his involvement” in the war in Ukraine.
"Yes, it’s obvious that Russia is an adversary of France because France is already involved in the war in Ukraine; it is indirectly taking part in this war."
Following a Ukraine summit in Paris on February 26, Macron stated that Western leaders had considered the idea of deploying soldiers to Ukraine and that while no consensus had been achieved, nothing could be ruled out.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto recently criticized France and Poland, stating that they have no authority to speak on behalf of NATO and that the alliance's engagement in the dispute would "erase the path to diplomacy,"
