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/)
Well shit.
Here we go. France trying to get nuked. And once again Salami-slicing tactics, 2000 at first and if Russia doesn't respond there they'll send more if those don't produce an immediate effect on the battlefield.
Doctrine dictates it's time for Russia to escalate. Russia could I suppose try taking out more transport and infrastructure links, destroy rail at Ukraine's borders, take out rail bridges to force troop movements by road though that just slows down the inevitable it also means they can't come in on civilian transport so unnoticed. Probably not enough. Need to target whatever staging base they're coming from and/or send a message by bombing NATO directly and showing they're not off limits if they want to participate. Though I am unsure conventional weapons will do anything but make Macron angry, it may be the the fact we are that the point that only a nuclear illustration will sober the west and Macron may be so deranged he will only double down in the face of that and use French nuclear weapons. I don't know how effective Russia's S-500 systems might be at taking down French ICBMs but I know Russia's arsenal absolutely outnumbers France's small number and if they get to that point France will be obliterated.
And to think only a day ago I seriously thought Macron was probably just posturing including leaking threats. We're speeding towards WW3 and all thanks to France, who would have thought. Maybe if we're lucky the US will grab his arm and stop him because dead irradiated vassals aren't very useful but who knows. It could all yet still be part of a ploy to get concessions but Russia needs to treat it like full intent.
On the contrary I think we’re going in the other direction.
This all started out as a revived Cold War. Then there was the WW2 phase before WW1-style trench warfare set in. Now Macron is bringing back le Grand Armée.
I think we’re speed running back to Hastings.