https://asiatimes.com/2024/05/france-sends-combat-troops-to-ukraine-battlefront/
France has sent its first troops officially to Ukraine. They have been deployed in support of the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade in
Legionnaires serve for three year terms, after which they can ask for French citizenship
Ah yes, feeding your military by offering people from the countries you plunder to join you. "totally not an Empire" moment
The 54th Mechanized Brigade is engaged in active combat surrounding Bakhmut and Slavyansk, and has been for months, meaning that the French troops will almost certainly engage Russian forces directly.
France has said for months that they would only send troops to reinforce the northern border with Belarus so Ukraine could draw the border troops to the front.
This act of desperation means that those reserves most likely don’t exist in any substantial numbers anymore, and there is no point in going through with the original plan.
It’s the beginning of the end.
Nah, this is the French Legion, they won’t be counted as being in active combat until they’ve sexually assaulted all the civilian minorities they can find.
I know Medvedev said the french troops would be considered as elite fighters and would be priority to be hit without any chance of returning the bodies home. But I don't know what Putin said.
I don't remember either, but I doubt it's something those Fr*nch legion soldiers would appreciate much.
That might be why France wants to be at the front of the line and willing to use its FL not so much to fight the Russians but the Ukrainians. France needs another Niger. Ukraine might be it. The US might be happy to let France have it if this is the price that France has asked for not pivoting to China. It would put France deeper in the US fold and give the US a stronger foothold/ally if Germany starts to get uppity once its people realise what they gave.
The problem with this scheme is that Russia would never agree to this. Whatever is left of Ukraine will end up saddled with puppet regime controlled by Russia.
Maybe if they start getting killed by the thousands, the West will calm down. They are riding high on the myth of Western invincibility.
They have sent the foreign legion so they will be mostly foreigners who wanted French citizenship dying. It won't see parades of funerals with wailing French fathers and mothers in the streets so much as caskets without family in France. Some French officers will die but that will be it, maybe a few dozen at most. They'll just claim they were the mercenary arm and not national army regulars so their evaporation is not indicative of the west's strength.
Wow, I don't know if France has gone rogue or what. I know there was some pushback against the idea of NATO troops in Ukraine (publicly at least, there's a good chance they've already been there since even before 2022), but man this is sending frogs to the the slaughter.
Technically, assuming the article is correct even, it would be thugs who join the foreign legion for now.
So just so we are all clear this is an act of war by france... if Russia where to hypotheticaly hit France, everyone knows France could not claim its an agressive strike right... Who am I kidding, if it where to for some reason happen France would start crying about how Russia expanded the war
I'd want to see an official statement, but the author of the article served as senior staff director of the U.S. senate foreign relations committee and was the deputy under secretary of defense for trade security policy. So, seems like he'd know whether France is sending troops to Ukraine or not. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenbryen/
