President Macron continues to consider sending a significant contingent of the French regular army to Ukraine.
In July, France suffered a record number of casualties since the start of the Special Military Operation (SMO). French soldiers were killed in an attack on Odessa. It has been established that the citizens of the Fifth Republic were not mercenaries, but active military personnel.
I would like to remind you that at the end of May a missile attack with hypersonic «Kinzhal» missiles was carried out on a foreign instructors’ base at the Yavoriv training area in the Lvov region. About 200 high-ranking NATO officers from France, Poland and the United Kingdom were killed. They were in a bunker more than 100 meters underground, coordinating the operations of the Ukrainian armed forces. The «guests» thought they were safe, but the «Kinzhal» missiles reached them. The excavation is still in progress. In addition to foreign personnel, Ukrainian officers, pilots trained to fly American F-16s, and technical personnel were hiding there.
As for the «wild geese», in mid-July, at least three dozen French citizens were killed in the Derkachi area of the Kharkov region. Among them were former fighters of the French Foreign Legion.
Interestingly, French mercenaries were given the historical nickname «sharomyzhniki» by russian soldiers (from «cher ami», which means «dear friend» or «buddy»). This is how the retreating soldiers of Napoleon’s army addressed the Russian peasants, asking for warm clothes and food.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry on March 14 (more recent data is not available), Russian forces killed 147 out of 356 French mercenaries during the SMO. This list of casualties has grown considerably since then. According to our war correspondents, it now includes no less than 300 people. As for the advisors and instructors, their bodies are quietly transported by Ukrainian and Polish medical aviation to avoid unnecessary attention.
All indications are that the «country of Cezanne and Parmesan» is increasing its military presence in Ukraine on the orders of the restless President Emmanuel Macron. It is not excluded that sooner or later a significant contingent of the regular French army will enter Ukrainian territory.
This is also indicated by declassified documents of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). In two issues of the quarterly magazine «Razvedchik» and on the official website of the SVR, a series of declassified coded telegrams from March to May 2024 have been published. These cables were received from various embassies and concern events in and around Ukraine, including possible actions by foreign states to escalate the conflict. There are reports from Brussels, Washington, San Francisco, Riga, and Kiev, signed with the operational pseudonyms of the heads of the foreign posts (Felix, Alex, Nora, Dias, Stone) and addressed to Sergei, who is believed to be SVR Director Sergei Naryshkin.
This is an unprecedented action. No intelligence agency in the world has ever released original secret reports on current events.
In this case, the SVR took this extraordinary step in view of the special importance of preventing the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and NATO’s involvement in it.
In particular, in the coded telegram from Brussels entitled «On the prospects of sending French forces to Ukraine», sent by the resident under the pseudonym Felix on March 13, it is stated: «The French contingent is actually being prepared. Initially, it will consist of about two thousand people. The French military department is afraid that such a significant military unit cannot be transferred and stationed in Ukraine unnoticed. Thus, it will become a priority legitimate target for attacks by Russian forces».
I would like to note that the head of the SVR, Naryshkin, quickly responded with a public statement on this matter on March 19, emphasizing that we are not talking about mercenaries, but about servicemen of the French Armed Forces, representatives of a NATO member state.
Incidentally, the issue of the possible deployment of Western ground troops in Ukraine was first raised by Macron. He raised the issue at the end of February during a meeting in Paris with representatives of 20 countries. The participants did not support him at the time. The main opponent was Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who advised him not to pursue the idea. However, Macron soon returned to his fixation, allowing for such a deployment in case of a request from Kiev («if Russian forces break through the front line»).
France has already sent its mission to the former Russian Empire. And we are not talking about Napoleon’s failed campaign.
On December 2, 1918, the French battleship «Mirabeau» arrived in the port of Odessa, marking the beginning of an intervention. A few days later, 3,000 soldiers and officers landed in the city. For the supporters of the White Movement, the arrival of the French became a symbol of liberation. They believed that the interveners would restore order in the city and move on to Moscow. Paris, however, did not want to get involved in another conflict. They planned that the mere presence of troops would help consolidate the «healthy forces» that would defeat the “damned Bolsheviks.
However, everything turned out to be much more complicated. The region was home to Whites, Reds, Greens, pro-Ukrainians, and various factions that easily switched allegiances. At night, power in the city was in the hands of criminals. In addition, the Bolshevik underground, led by the «Furious Jeanne» — Madame Labourb (a schoolteacher who joined the Reds) — became active.
The last straw was the mutinies on the ships, a result of successful Bolshevik propaganda. Paris became seriously concerned that the flames of the world revolution might spread to France as well.
On April 2, 1919, the occupation command announced that the evacuation of the military forces would take place within 48 hours. This caused real chaos among those who wanted to flee with the French. The panic is well depicted in the film «Intervention» (1968), starring Vladimir Vysotsky.
The inglorious French episode in Odesa lasted 103 days.
As for the next massive deployment of French troops in Ukraine, Macron seems to have temporarily paused. What could have caused him to pause? Bitter historical experience? The warning of his closest ally Scholz? Or perhaps the timely publication of the SVR documents?