News about FRANCE

[Lisa LoveParticipant]

Moscow Says France Priming Troops for Ukraine; Paris Slams ‘Disinformation’

Claims by Moscow that France is planning to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine are another example of Russian propaganda, according to the French Defense Ministry.

“The maneuver … once again illustrates Russia’s systematic use of disinformation,” the ministry said in a March 19 statement.

“We consider this type of provocation [to be] irresponsible.”

Earlier the same day, Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), claimed to have information that 2,000 French troops were being primed for imminent deployment.

“According to information obtained by the SVR, a [French military] contingent is already being prepared to be sent to Ukraine,” he told Russia’s TASS news agency.

“Initially, it will include roughly 2,000 troops.”

In a presumable reference to French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr. Naryshkin went on to accuse France’s “current leadership” of “not caring about the death of ordinary French people or the concerns of the [country’s] generals.”

In the event that French troops are deployed to Ukraine, they would be viewed by the Russian armed forces as “legitimate priority targets,” according to Mr. Naryshkin.

Since Russia launched its invasion of eastern Ukraine in February 2022, NATO member France has remained one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters.

Under Mr. Macron, Paris has provided Ukraine with billions of euros and a range of offensive weaponry, including tanks, artillery rounds, and long-range missiles.

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Paris, where he and Mr. Macron signed a 10-year “security agreement” between their two countries.

Along with a pledge for an additional 3 billion euros (about $3.26 billion) toward Ukraine’s war effort, the deal also calls for stepped-up deliveries of French munitions to Ukraine.

Macron on Warpath
In recent weeks, public statements by Mr. Macron regarding Russia’s ongoing invasion have become increasingly hawkish.
Last month, he surprised many observers by suggesting that European Union member-states could send troops to Ukraine to help fight Russian forces.

“Nothing should be ruled out,” Mr. Macron said at a Feb. 26 meeting of EU leaders in Paris.

Other leading allies of Kyiv—including the United States, the UK, and Germany—quickly distanced themselves from the French leader’s assertions.

Since then, however, Mr. Macron has gone even further.

On March 7, he told a meeting of French opposition leaders that Paris should have “no limits” in its approach to Russia’s invasion, which has made several gains in recent weeks.

Speaking to French media outlets after the meeting, Green Party leader Marine Tondelier described Mr. Macron’s remarks as “extremely worrying.”

Manuel Bompard, leader of the France Insoumise party, told French daily Le Monde, “I arrived [at the meeting] worried and left even more worried.”

Other French opposition leaders have reportedly voiced similar misgivings.

Nevertheless, Mr. Macron’s controversial proposals have been welcomed by a handful of other European leaders.

On March 8, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné met his three Baltic counterparts in Lithuania, where the notion of sending troops to Ukraine received a warm reception.

“No form of support for Ukraine can be excluded,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis reportedly said at the time.

The three Baltic States, all of which border Russian Federation territory, have been members of NATO since 2004.

On the same day, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski—contradicting earlier statements by Poland’s prime minister—said the idea was “not unthinkable.”

Mr. Sikorski’s assertion coincided with similar remarks by Petr Pavel, president of the Czech Republic, which, like Poland, is a longstanding NATO member.

“From the point of view of international law and the U.N. Charter, there would be nothing to prevent NATO member-states troops … from assisting in the work in Ukraine,” Mr. Pavel said in televised comments.

Notably, the Czech leader made the remark only three days after meeting with Mr. Macron, who paid a state visit to Prague on March 5.

0

0

[Author]

Posts