MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. The possible dispatch of 2,000 French troops to Ukraine will not have a serious impact on the course of Russia’s special military operation, retired colonel Sergey Suvorov, an expert in the field of armored vehicles, has told TASS.
On March 19, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said that France was already preparing a military contingent to be sent to Ukraine, which would initially amount to about 2,000 soldiers.
"They don't remember and don't read history. In general, it doesn't teach them anything. Well, they will come, these 2,000 men. Well, they won't make any difference. Yes, it will only prolong the conflict for some time. And there will be more losses," Suvorov said. Macron’s Napoleonic ambitions are futile, as there are no military commanders like Napoleon in France these days.
SVR about French mercenaries in Ukraine
According to Naryshkin, French military personnel have been unofficially present in Ukraine for quite a while already. Some have already been killed or wounded.
Naryshkin pointed out that France unofficially recognized the deaths of its own servicemen. The French army has not experienced such a level of losses since the Algerian War of 1954-1962. The Elysee Palace, as Naryshkin noted, also believes that the number of dead Frenchmen has exceeded a psychologically significant threshold, and now there is a question about how to bury the dead and treat the wounded in secret so as not to spark a public outcry.
After that, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces made a statement on the social network X that what Naryshkin said did not correspond to reality.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on March 14, the Russian forces killed 147 out of the 356 French mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine during the special military operation. In all, 5,926 mercenaries from various countries were eliminated.