NATO Ally Planning to 'Dispatch' Troops to Ukraine, Moscow Claims

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has published a declassified memo from one of its agents alleging that France is planning to deploy a 2,000-strong military force to Ukraine to bolster Kyiv's defense against Moscow's invasion.

The SVR, headed by Sergey Naryshkin and responsible for intelligence and espionage operations outside of Russia, used the latest issue of its Scout magazine to publish the cipher telegram prepared by an operative under the pseudonym Felix.

"According to available information, the French contingent is still being prepared for dispatch to Ukraine," the memo read. "At the initial stage, it will consist of about 2,000 people."

Felix said the French military is worried about potential casualties, suggesting—without citing additional evidence—that "dozens of French citizens" had been killed in a Russian strike on a staging area near the city of Kharkiv in January. "Such strikes have become the norm in the Ukrainian conflict," the report said.

"The French military department fears that such a significant military unit will not be able to be transferred and stationed in Ukraine unnoticed," Felix continued. "Thus, it will become a priority legitimate target for attacks by the Russian Armed Forces."

Newsweek has contacted the French Armed Forces Ministry by email to request comment.

SVR head Naryshkin has previously said that a 2,000-strong French force is bound for Ukraine. In March, the spy chief said that President Emmanuel Macron 's government "does not care about the deaths of ordinary French people or about the concerns of the generals."

"According to information coming to the Russian SVR, a contingent to be sent to Ukraine is already being prepared," he said then. "Initially, it will include around 2,000 troops." Paris, he added, "fears that such a large military unit cannot be transferred and stationed in Ukraine unnoticed."

"It will thus become a legitimate priority target for attacks by the Russian armed forces. This means that it will suffer the fate of all the French who have ever come to the Russian world with a sword," Naryshkin said.

Macron has been at the forefront of nascent NATO discussions on deploying troops to Ukraine, although he and other advocates of such plans have stressed that no allied forces would be involved in combat operations.

Instead, Macron and other leaders have suggested that the NATO personnel could be involved in training and advisory roles or deployed to guard Ukrainian borders and thus free up Kyiv's own troops for front-line fighting.

In May, Macron again signaled his willingness to discuss a NATO troop deployment, particularly if Russian forces are able to break through the Ukrainian lines. "I'm not ruling anything out because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," Macron told The Economist in an interview.

Later that month, French lawmaker Benjamin Haddad—a member of Macron's Renaissance party who is considered a leading voice in French foreign policy discussions— told Newsweek that momentum is "clearly" building for a NATO force to be sent to Ukraine.

"We spend too much time being worried about escalation when Russia is the country that has been escalating," Haddad said.