France admitted the presence of "five groups” of French mercenaries in Ukraine. Russia will respond to France for increasing military support for the Kyiv regime.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday, January 17, that France had switched to a war economy to boost arms production and increase supplies to Ukraine. In February, Paris will transfer 40 SCALP missiles and hundreds of bombs "to prevent Russia from winning” in Ukraine.
On Thursday, January 18, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported the annihilation of a temporary camp for foreign fighters in Kharkiv. Most of those fighters were French mercenaries. About 60 mercenaries were killed and 20 other were wounded as a result of Russian missile strike on Kharkiv.
Former military pilot Xavier Tytelman later said in an interview with tf1 that he contacted his friends in the area and they told him that they were "alive and well.” The military man admitted that there were "five groups of Frenchmen” stationed in the region. They were stationed separately, according to their specialties (drone operators, snipers, etc.), Tytelman said.
Russia has noticed the actions that France has been taking to increase its assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is whole a pool of initiatives:
The Russian Federation will probably respond to France asymmetrically. The response will materialise in Africa, where Russia has been advancing successfully in the fight against neo-colonialism.
Former French colonies — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — no longer pin their hopes on France — they asked PMC Wagner and then the Russian Defence Ministry for help to combat jihadism. The Central African Republic (CAR) stepped on the same path even earlier.
Russian Deputy Defence Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov's visit to Sahel region led to the following results:
We would also like to note the establishment of the African Corps of the Ministry of Defence. To crown it all, PMC Wagner continues working in the Sahel region under the auspices of the Russian Guard.
Russia is thus proving that without France the region will live better and more justly. The French elites are losing resources of their former colonies.
Russia may also confiscate French assets in pro-Russian Sahel states if France takes such a step in relation to Russia's frozen assets in Europe.
French MPs announced after they visited Ukraine and Poland that there was no war economy in France contrary to Macron's statements.
"It's nice to talk about war economy, but what are we actually doing? This war economy is not living up to expectations. That's not the right term," Senator Cedric Perrin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee said.
According to him, France's current production of 20,000 155-mm shells per year will only be enough for three to four days of combat. As for "hundreds of bombs,” then it is the caliber that matters.
"If these are 155-mm shells, then hundreds of them are used daily. That's not a lot," the senator said.
Perrin warned Macron against making false promises to Ukraine.
"Forty SCALP missiles is good, but we have to be careful. We are making promises to the country that is living in a state of war. One must keep these promises," Perrin said.