SITREP 3/19/24: French Military Openly Floats 20,000 Troop Deployment

Things keep ratcheting up in Ukraine, with France continuing its saber-rattling escalatory spiral.

Let’s quickly run down the new separate signals being sent from all across NATO:

In a new Le Parisien piece, Macron reportedly reiterated the eventual need for ground troops to save Ukraine:

In fact, Macron showed his dangerous hubris in the article by reciting the trope about Russia being a middling gas station with nukes:

“Putin has a discourse of fear. It should not be intimidated, we don’t have in front of us a great power. Russia is an average power with a nuclear weapon, but whose GDP is much lower than that of Europeans, lower than that of Germany, of France.”

Of course, leave it to a Rothschild banker to not understand how PPP index works for trade surplus countries.

This was followed by France’s Chief of Army Staff Pierre Schill implying in Le Monde that the army would be ready for any such task:

He delineates specifically that France has 1 full division of 20,000 troops which can be inserted within 30 days:

This was backed by a new video from French TV which shows French Lieutenant-colonel Vincent Arbaretier openly discussing the types of military deployments the 20,000-strong French force can undertake in Ukraine.

The first clip has the most salient points, while the other is the full segment:

Full:

And this latest French sally was topped off by Russia’s spy chief Naryshkin’s rattling statement that France is preparing 2,000 troops for deployment:

MOSCOW, March 19. /tass/. The Russian side has data that France is already preparing a military contingent for sending to Ukraine, at the initial stage it will be about 2 thousand people. This was stated by the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of the Russian Federation Sergey Naryshkin. His comment is available to TASS.

In fact, he states that the 2,000 number would be just the “initial stage”, but claims that such a force would become a priority target for Russian strikes:

At the initial stage, it will be about 2 thousand people,” Naryshkin said.

According to the director of the SVR, the French military is afraid that such a significant unit will not be able to be quietly transferred to Ukraine and quartered there. “Thus, it will become a priority legitimate target for attacks by the Russian Armed Forces. This means that the fate of all Frenchmen who have ever come to the territory of the Russian world with a sword awaits him, ” Naryshkin concluded.

What’s interesting is that a separate Russian report appears to corroborate this, though I have no information as to its authenticity, so take it with a large grain of salt:

According to information based on intercepted conversations and e-mails, France is mobilizing 1,800 truck-driving reservists to transport fuel and military equipment to Ukraine. Marie Mercier, an obscure senator from Saône-et-Loire but vice-president of the Senate’s France-Ukraine friendship group, appears to be coordinating this operation in liaison with André Accary (left in photo), president of the Saône-et-Loire departmental council. Régis Poiraud (right in photo), reserve non-commissioned officer and president of UDSOR (Union Départementale des Sous-Officiers) in Saône-et-Loire, a close associate of Senator Mercier, is said to be in charge of operational organization.

For the record, the French Defense Minister officially denied the Russian claims:

The French Defense Ministry denies a plan to send 2,000 soldiers to Ukraine

The military department claims that the statement of the head of the SVR Naryshkin about the training of 2,000 French military personnel to be sent to Ukraine does not correspond to reality.

The text of the statement used the usual phrases about “irresponsible provocation” and “disinformation operations.”

Meanwhile, French TV is actively discussing the dispatch of military personnel and their deployment on the territory of Ukraine.

This is followed by some questionable reports about French mercenaries already spotted heading to Ukraine via Bulgaria—inconclusive video at above link.

French mercenaries have been spotted in Bulgaria on their way to Ukraine?

Locals claim to have seen convoys of French mercenaries and equipment near the town of Sliven, flying to Sofia and then travelling by truck to Ukraine. The day before, the US Navy cargo ship Leroy A. Mendonica delivered to the port of Alexandroupolis in northern Greece a shipment of military equipment to be deployed in Europe as part of the “reinforcement of NATO forces on the continent”.

Not to mention that Azov Brigade reportedly released this timely video officially “welcoming” the French legion to come help them in Ukraine:

Translation of the end splash-screen:

Meanwhile Spain’s El Pais paper confirmed that European troops have already long been in Ukraine:

And as an aside on Spain—its Defense Minister Margarita Robles had the audacity to fearmonger of the “real threat” that Putin’s missiles can reach Spain:

Fortunately, she seemed to unequivocally rule out Spanish troops ever being deployed to Ukraine in the future. But can someone enlighten me as to why Putin would ever decide to strike Spain of all places? The baseless fearmongering from these Euro-mutants is simply unhinged!

“We cannot rule out the possibility that British soldiers will go to Ukraine to confront Putin’s regime,” – former British Defense Minister Ben Wallace.

In the above Politico piece, former MI6 head Richard Dearlove warns:

“If you stopped anyone in the street here in the U.K. and asked them whether they thought Britain is at war, they’d look at you as if you were mad,” Dearlove said. “But we are at war — we’re engaged in a gray war with Russia, and I am trying to remind people of that.”

All the ‘Loves’ are such lovely folk, huh? Dearlove, Breedlove, Strangelove…

That being said, technically speaking, a 20,000-man division—by standards of classical military theory—is supposed to be able to hold, maximum, a 10km-front, give or take, not 700km+ like the northern border spanning from Belarus to Sumy region or even the similar length of the Dnieper. Sure, this is an inactive front so there could be some leeway, but even so.

That being said, they could seek not to cover the whole front but rather free up 20,000 additional AFU fighters, for example.

Military journalist Alexander Kharchenko:

Looking at the European continent from Africa, I don’t understand what Ukraine hopes for. Even if the French bring in 20,000 corps, they will not be able to close even the Bakhmut direction. Kyiv may not have the most advanced army, but under the walls of this city they only lost over 40,000 soldiers killed. Whether the French are ready to renew their contingent twice and declare mobilization is a big question.

Alexander Kharchenko

But what else could possibly have Macron so rattled as to bear down into such desperate flights? Well, the news from authoritative sources continues to be quite grim from Ukraine.

CONTINUE READING HERE

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