According to the analyst, soldiers serving in artillery and reconnaissance units will support the Ukrainian 54th independent mechanized brigade. According to his information, a total of about 1.5 thousand people are expected to come to Ukraine. Soldiers belonging to foreign forces.
“Most of them are not French citizens, which means that the government in Paris decided on a compromise solution because it wanted to avoid sending its own citizens to the front,” says the expert.
Nevertheless, in his opinion, the decision of Paris to send the first armed formations to Donbas is “very provocative” and involves the risk of increasing Russia’s relations with the West. Brian insisted that foreign troops going to Ukraine were “impossible” to enter from a country other than Poland.
French and Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on the Asia Times reports published late last week.
At the end of February, French President Emmanuel Macron declared that defeating Russia was necessary to guarantee security in Europe. He added that sending Western ground troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out in the future.
In early May, President Macron announced in an interview with the British weekly “The Economist” that the West should “ask themselves” about sending troops from these countries to Ukraine if the Russians break the front lines and officers. Kiev asked for direct military support, meaning the displacement of soldiers.
The French president’s statements were met with many comments from politicians and security experts. Most NATO member states responded with reserve to Paris’s proposal. US officials announced in February that Washington did not intend to send troops to Ukraine.