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Military operation in Ukraine

French military already present in Donbass — French journalist

Christelle Neant said that the Ukrainian armed forces is drafting people with no military experience as part of its mobilization campaign and sends them to the frontline after "just two or three weeks of training"

MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. Christelle Neant, a military correspondent from France living and working in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), is convinced that the French military is already taking part in hostilities in Donbass on the Kiev government’s side.

"I’m almost sure that there are French soldiers on Ukrainian battlefields, because it would be impossible for the untrained Ukrainian military to operate Caesar self-propelled howitzers," she told TASS in an interview.

She added that the Ukrainian armed forces is drafting people with no military experience as part of its mobilization campaign and sends them to the frontline after "just two or three weeks of training."

"Effectively, it is impossible to operate a self-propelled howitzer after a three-week training. This means that someone else with much greater experience is using them. Clearly, those should be people with military background and experience of using such weapons: in other words, French career officers or former soldiers. That is why I believe that French soldiers are already on the battlefield," Neant said.

In her opinion, France has been sending its military to Ukraine in small groups to mitigate possible political risks for the current French leadership.

"At this point, sending a large group will be a major risk for [French President Emmanuel] Macron. If they perish all at once, he will have to take the consequences," she said, adding that it is a lot easier to find a plausible public explanation for occasional deaths.

"That is why I think that he will not send the military in thousands," the journalist added. "Otherwise, how would the French government explain to thousands of families where their loved ones are?"

In an interview with the British magazine The Economist, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged it might be possible to consider sending troops to Ukraine in case of Kiev's request "if Russian forces break through the frontline." Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that these speculations were an unprecedented new round of tension.

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Military operation in Ukraine

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