French Minister of Defence: “The situation with the DPRK could be a turning point for sending French troops to Ukraine”
22 October 2024 11:58
French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecorneuil said that sending North Korean soldiers to Ukraine could change the position of Ukrainian partners on the format of military assistance to Ukraine. This was reported by TF1 with reference to "Komersant Ukrainian"
Thus, the minister called President Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” “the beginning of a political path on which it is necessary to support Ukraine in the long term, as well as to raise questions about the future after the war.” Lecorneu underlined the importance of discussing the future of the ceasefire, noting that it involves the creation of conventional deterrence mechanisms to avoid new Russian aggression. This issue needs to be discussed now, the minister added.
Asked whether France should send troops to Ukraine, Lecorneuil replied:
“We have already discussed the issue of training the Ukrainian military… Now the situation with North Korea could be a turning point. Obviously, the relations and interdependence with Pyongyang, which has been supplying weapons for months, and with Tehran, indicate an international escalation of security tensions.”
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However, so far, the French minister has avoided even commenting on sending DPRK soldiers to Ukraine.
“At the moment, only the South Korean and Ukrainian services have confirmed this information. We are checking them. This is such a serious situation that it would be inappropriate to comment on it without evidence,”
– he said.
However, the official is not surprised to hear about North Koreans in Ukraine, as he believes that Russia’s weakness is precisely its inability to mobilise troops. Over the past six months, Moscow has been offering huge sums of money to volunteers, the minister says, and this is evidence of a weak mobilisation capacity.
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