PARIS, March 28. /TASS/. Reports about a large-scale recruitment of troops to be sent to Ukraine are untrue, the French Ministry of Armed Forces said, adding that a probe has been launched into the website that made these claims.
"The website that imitates the government website is fake," a ministry spokesperson told TASS. The official added that screenshots from the website sengager-ukraine.fr (which is currently unavailable, according to a TASS correspondent) had appeared on social media, calling on volunteers to join the French armed forces to take part in operations in Ukraine. The ministry spokesperson added that army jobs were only listed on the official website of the French armed forces.
The Defense Ministry declined to answer a question about the reason behind the listing of a large number of jobs by the France Travail labor exchange, where the ground forces command is looking for recruits for land troops and armored units. In addition, the ministry official did not say if the ministry was aware of the ad posted on the Ukrainian embassy’s website, which urged the French people to enlist in Kiev’s so-called International Legion in order to take part in the conflict with Russia.
Meanwhile, French media outlets have been reporting since the beginning of the year that the country’s armed forces are short on troops and currently lack 3,000 personnel, according to the command. On March 18, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced a number of measures aimed at increasing the attractiveness of military service, including higher salaries and better living conditions.
Potential troop deployment to Ukraine
After a Paris conference on Ukraine in late February, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out that Western ground troops would be sent to the zone of Russia’s special military operation. Macron also said that Western countries were determined to do everything to prevent Russia from winning the conflict.
Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin pointed out on March 19 that France was already training troops to be sent to Ukraine, the number of which would stand at 2,000 at the initial stage. According to Naryshkin, French military personnel have been unofficially present in Ukraine for quite a while; some have already been killed or wounded. The Russian Defense Ministry said on March 14 that Russian forces had killed 147 out of the 356 French mercenaries who had arrived in Ukraine since the start of the special military operation.