Moscow has accused France of preparing to send up to 2,000 troops to Ukraine, a claim Paris has yet to confirm, and one that immediately raised eyebrows across Europe.
According to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the deployment will include elite stormtroopers from the French Foreign Legion, many of them reportedly Latin American recruits.
Legionnaires ‘Training Near Polish Border’
In a statement released on Tuesday, the SVR alleged that legionnaires are already stationed in Poland, close to the Ukrainian border, where they are said to be undergoing intensive combat training and being equipped with weapons and armoured vehicles.
“Their transfer to central regions of Ukraine is planned in the near future,” the statement claimed, without offering evidence.
The SVR also asserted that French hospitals have been ordered to expand their capacity, creating hundreds of additional beds to treat potential battlefield casualties, while doctors are receiving training in field medicine.
‘Instructors’ or Combat Troops?
Russia’s intelligence service claimed that if details of the alleged operation were leaked, Paris would present the deployment as a mission of military instructors, officially there to train Ukrainian forces, rather than to fight.
The statement went further, taking a swipe at French President Emmanuel Macron, accusing him of chasing “Napoleon’s laurels” and comparing his supposed ambitions in Ukraine to historic military disasters.
“Macron’s study of history is disgracefully poor,” the SVR said. “He not only skipped the section describing the conclusion of Napoleon’s campaign in Russia but also missed the chapter about Sweden’s defeat at Poltava.”
The statement ended with a thinly veiled warning, quoting Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevsky: “History teaches no lessons, it only punishes ignorance.”
Paris Silent as Tensions Rise
The French government has not responded publicly to Moscow’s latest accusations, which come amid escalating rhetoric between Russia and NATO.
President Macron has previously hinted that Western nations should not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, though French officials later clarified that Paris had no plans for direct combat involvement.
The latest claims from the Kremlin, however, suggest Moscow is bracing for the possibility, or at least using the narrative to frame France as an active belligerent.
For now, whether this alleged deployment is real or propaganda remains unclear, but it marks another sharp turn in the increasingly volatile war of words between Russia and the West.
