The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that there will be “no immunity” from Russian strikes for Western troops deployed to Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a warning that comes as France is planning a deployment.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments in response to an op-ed by Lee Hockstader that was published in The Washington Post on Monday.
Hockstader wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin “might see hitting French troops, if Russian forces can locate them, not only as a way to expose Western divisions but also as a chance to humiliate [French President] Macron, now among the most hawkishly anti-Russian Western leaders.”
According to RT, Peskov said, “The fact is that any instructors who are involved in training the military of the Ukrainian regime do not have any immunity. And it doesn’t matter whether they are French or not.”
According to a report from Reuters, France might announce its plans to deploy a few hundred military trainers to Ukraine following a meeting between Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 7.
All the talk about a potential French deployment has highlighted the fact that there is already a small number of NATO special operations troops inside Ukraine (97 as of March 2023). Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Tuesday that there were already indications French trainers may be in the country and said they were legitimate targets.
“As for the issue of French instructors, I have grounds to think and there are quite a few specific facts that they are already working in Ukraine. Regardless of whether they are considered to be servicemen from the French armed forces or … simply mercenaries, they represent a legitimate target for our armed forces,” Lavrov said.
In WWII there were two actual maniacal totalitarian leaders (well, let's not think about how Churchill kicked the whole thing off, at least partly) who got the globe embroiled in unbelievably brutal, deadly conflict. Now, we don't have that "excuse." We have political & monetary grab festers and merchants of death (armament dealers) and well, the sorry, mundane, self-deluding system of STILL European-centric tribal warfare and grudges that the US has so self-regardingly and provincially let itself be bested by. Remember master and blaster in Road Warrior? Sci-fi apocalyptic characters enter the real world. Mars is looking better and better.
"Mars is looking better and better."
High radiation levels, unbreathable atmosphere, alien landscape, infertile soil – best we leave that behind and give Mars a try if & when things go too far.
Oh I would love to hear your take on Churchill who was not in power on September 1, 1939 kicked off WW2. Do tell.
Why not? IF a combatant is in a war zone why would they not be targeted.
Between logistics and industrial production NATO and American troops would not stand a chance in Ukraine against conventional weapons alone!
Your lack of military knowledge is amazing.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Retired after 20 years in the military including fighting in combat so spin in the wind!
My guess is that the Russians will hold back until there are multiple targets in multiple countries. Given that a counterattack will likely escalate the west into a stratosphere of self-righteous indignation, the Russians are likely to make that first time count.
So it goes………