If French troops are sent to Ukraine, they will be regarded by Moscow as legitimate military targets, Russia’s foreign ministry has warned.
“If the French appear in the conflict zone, they will inevitably become targets for the Russian armed forces,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on May 8.
“Paris already knows this.”
In January, Russia claimed to have carried out a precision strike on a facility housing “foreign fighters” in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
Russia’s defense ministry later asserted, without providing evidence, that 60 “French mercenaries” had been killed in the strike.
At the time, Paris rejected the allegation, with France’s foreign ministry claiming that France “has no mercenaries in Ukraine or anywhere else.”
Ms. Zakharova’s remarks follow weeks of increasingly hawkish rhetoric by French President Emmanuel Macron.
In February, the French president told EU leaders that the deployment of European troops to Ukraine “should not be ruled out.”
In March, he told French opposition leaders that Paris should have “no limits” in its approach to Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine, now in its third year.
And in a recent interview with The Economist, Mr. Macron doubled down on the idea of sending troops, especially if Ukrainian defense lines collapse.
“I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,” Mr. Macron told the magazine.
“If Russia decided to go further, we will ... all have to ask ourselves this question [regarding the deployment of troops].”
According to Mr. Macron, his repeated proposals for troop deployments are meant to keep Moscow guessing about Western intentions.
“Mr. Macron explains his rhetoric by citing an intention to create some kind of ‘strategic ambiguity’ for Russia,” Ms. Zakharova told reporters.
“But we have to disappoint him. For us, the situation is obvious.”
She said that Russian forces were finding increasing numbers of French nationals among those being killed on the battlefield in Ukraine.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify Ms. Zakharova’s assertion.
British Brinksmanship
Mr. Macron isn’t the only European leader making bellicose comments.Last week, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron raised eyebrows when he said Kyiv had the right to use UK-supplied missile systems to strike targets in Russia.
“Ukraine has that right,” he told Reuters.
“Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it’s defending itself.”
Moscow often accuses the West of pushing the world to the brink of nuclear conflict by providing Kyiv with long-range munitions used to strike targets inside Russian territory.
Earlier this month, Russia claimed that its forces had successfully foiled a long-range missile attack—using U.S.-made ATACMS missiles—on several airfields in Crimea.
Kyiv later confirmed that it had fired several long-range missiles at Crimea from Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson.
Moscow effectively annexed Crimea in 2014 and now regards the strategic peninsula as Russian Federation territory.
Delivery of long-range missile systems to Ukraine, including ATACMS and UK-made Storm Shadows, remains the subject of debate among Kyiv’s allies.
Proponents argue that Ukraine’s judicious use of long-range munitions will allow it to strike previously unreachable Russian supply lines, rail networks, and air bases.
However, critics say long-range missile strikes—especially on targets inside Russia—risk widening the current conflict into a war of continental proportions.
Kyiv, meanwhile, has repeatedly pledged not to use Western-supplied long-range munitions to strike targets beyond its recognized borders.
Russian Ultimatum
Earlier this week, Moscow announced plans to rehearse the deployment of its nuclear forces in response to “provocative statements by Western officials.”According to Russia’s defense ministry, the drills—to include aircraft and naval forces—are aimed at “enhancing the preparedness of non-strategic nuclear forces with a view to achieve combat objectives.”
Moscow later confirmed that the drills were a direct response to recent calls by Western leaders, including Mr. Macron, to send troops to Ukraine.
Such calls “deserve a special response,” a Kremlin spokesman told reporters.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence apparatus, described the planned drills as an example of “nuclear blackmail” by Russia.
On May 6, Nigel Casey, the UK’s ambassador to Russia, was reportedly summoned by Moscow to explain Mr. Cameron’s recent remarks.
“The ambassador was asked to reflect on the catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps by London and to refute the provocative statements made by the head of the Foreign Office,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
According to Moscow, Mr. Casey was further warned that if British arms were used to strike Russian territory, Russia would retaliate against British military assets—both inside and outside Ukraine.
London denied Mr. Casey had been summoned—or dressed down—by Russia’s foreign ministry.
According to the UK foreign office, the envoy merely attended a “diplomatic meeting” with Russian officials, during which he “restated the UK’s support for Ukraine.”
Notably, Pierre Lévy, France’s envoy to Moscow, was likewise summoned by Russia’s foreign ministry on May 6.
According to the ministry, Mr. Levy was asked to explain “the increasingly bellicose statements by the French leadership and growing evidence of France’s involvement in the conflict around Ukraine.”
Paris, meanwhile, has remained tight-lipped about what transpired at the meeting.
But soon afterward, Mr. Macron said his country was “not at war with Russia or the Russian people.”
At a joint news conference with his Chinese counterpart, he said, “We are also not seeking a change of power in Russia.”
