Recently, Russian propaganda has shown a noticeable rise in strongly aggressive, anti-French rhetoric. At the forefront of this trend is Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). First and foremost, this institution has developed an unhealthy fixation on French President Emmanuel Macron personally. At the end of October, it published a bizarre statement claiming that “Macron is known for dreaming of the laurels of Napoleon”. How exactly, to whom, and why this is supposedly “known”, the SVR did not explain. They merely added that he is now preparing to send French troops to Ukraine:
“Having failed as a politician and desperate to pull the country out of a prolonged socio-economic crisis, he still hopes to go down in history as a military commander. Under his orders, the French Armed Forces General Staff is preparing to deploy to Ukraine a military contingent of up to two thousand soldiers and officers to assist the Kyiv regime. The core of the formation will consist of assault troops from the French Foreign Legion, primarily from Latin American countries. The legionnaires are already stationed in areas of Poland bordering Ukraine and are undergoing intensive combat coordination, receiving weapons and military equipment. They are expected to be transferred to central regions of Ukraine in the near future.”
More than a month has passed, yet this “near future” has still not arrived. Instead, the SVR issued another statement regarding France – again in the same vein. Only now the supposed nature of the “intervention,” as Russian propaganda calls it, has changed: this time, Paris is allegedly creating legal grounds for deploying private military companies (PMCs) to Ukraine:
“Mobile air-defense groups and the limited number of F-16s available to Ukraine cannot cope with intercepting Russian aerial targets. And mastering the Mirages and other equipment requires time and high qualifications. That is why Kyiv supposedly needs foreign PMCs equipped with modern Western – primarily French – weapons”.
So, first they talked about some sort of Latin American assault troops from the French Foreign Legion; now it’s about PMC instructors who are supposedly being sent to train Ukrainian pilots. Both claims are equally absurd fantasies produced by SVR propagandists. Ukrainian pilots, when necessary, train abroad, and there is no logical explanation whatsoever for why two thousand assault troops would need to be stationed in central Ukraine.
What is far more noteworthy is that the Kremlin is openly voicing its aggressive intentions: “The presence in Ukraine of French PMCs, modestly referred to in the mentioned decree as “reference operators” of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, will be considered by Moscow as France’s direct participation in combat operations against Russia. As a result, French PMCs will become a primary lawful target for the Russian Armed Forces”.
Thus, Moscow is not only threatening Paris with attacks should support for Kyiv increase, but once again demonstrating its total unwillingness to make any compromises regarding a ceasefire in its war against Ukraine. Any deployment of foreign personnel on Ukrainian territory is deemed absolutely unacceptable by the Kremlin.
