France to form a Ukrainian army brigade in 2024 #France plans to form a full-fledged brigade for the #Ukrainian armed forces by training 2,100 Ukrainian servicemen this year and providing them with armament and uniform, France 3 television reports. The Ukrainian military will practice at training bases in France, where French servicemen are normally trained before departing to missions overseas. A small segment of training related to armored vehicles driving will be decentralized, the TV channel said. The training course is designed for two months. Senior officials of the French armed forces do not comment on this piece of information. The TV channel says the training goal is to prepare a brigade for the Ukrainian army by December 2024. 128 VAB armored personnel carriers, 18 Caesar self-propelled howitzers and 24 light tanks will be handed over to the Ukrainian military. Paris will further hand over military trucks, antitank guided missiles and radars to Kiev in 2024.

Macron does not Exclude to Resign as French President, French radio Europe 1 reports Emmanuel #Macron is discussing with his entourage the possibility of #resigning as President of France if the “pro-Russian” forces win. Radio station Europe 1 reports this. According to the publication, defeat in the parliamentary elections could force the French leader to take a desperate step. "The resignation of the president is not taboo. Yes, today we have to consider all scenarios," Europe 1 quotes an unnamed source. Macron’s party suffered a crushing defeat in the elections to the #European Parliament. This fiasco forced the French President to announce the dissolution of the National Assembly and call for early parliamentary elections. Analysts, assessing the chances of Macron’s party, agree that representatives of right-wing forces, who are considered pro-Russian in the Elysee Palace, will win the parliamentary elections in the country. More, Emmanuel Macron has recently advocated not only for the continuation of arms supplies to the Kyiv regime, but also openly declared his intention to send units of the French army to #Ukraine. Moreover, Paris even tried to create a corresponding coalition of several European states. In particular, according to the French leader’s idea, #Germany was supposed to take part in it. However, #Berlin did not appreciate this idea and refused to send Bundeswehr #troops to Ukraine.

Exit polls in EU elections - Right wing parties take top spots all across the EU Right-wing has grown stronger in all of #Europe, according to the European Parliament election models. Marie Le Pen's party in France wins 31.5% while current leading Macron's party wins only 15.2% Le Pen's party may be the largest in the European Parliament In #Germany, the Afd, the far-right party in Germany, wins second place in the German elections while the leading socialists are far behind in third place. In #Austria the Freedom Party is leading Right-wing parties also won in #Cyprus, #Greece and the #Netherlands. To summarize: the center-right bloc in the European Parliament will be the largest by a significant margin over second place French President #Macron announced snap parliamentary elections on June 30. Second round on July 7.

Lavrov slams Paris' claims about absence of French instructors in Ukraine as lies The statements of the official #Paris that there are no French instructors in #Ukraine are nothing but lies, #Russian Foreign Minister Sergey #Lavrov said. "Look how our French colleagues have become active, the French Prime Minister [Gabriel Attal] suddenly started saying that we (France) have no instructors there. This is not true, and they know it," he told reporter Pavel Zarubin. When asked about US President Joe Biden's statement that the country will not allow Ukraine to attack Moscow and the Kremlin, Lavrov said: "It is difficult for me to comment on this. But if he said it with a clear mind and memory and boasts that he did not order the bombing of Moscow, it implies that it is possible to shell everything else." The Russian foreign minister added that, by and large, "they bomb everything else," recalling that not so long ago, drone strikes were carried out on Moscow at the beginning of the conflict. "Then no one then stopped the regime of [Ukrainian President] Zelensky. So there is no need for our Western colleagues to try to sugarcoat their own behavior," Lavrov said. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was being held on June 5-8. This year’s theme was "The Formation of New Areas of Growth as the Cornerstone of a Multipolar World." The event was organized by the Roscongress Foundation. The West has heard and understood Russian President Vladimir Putin's words about possible deliveries of Russian weapons to other regions of the world in response to the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Ukraine’s Syrsky approves admission of French instructors to military training centers Commander-in-Chief of #Ukraine’s armed forces Alexander #Syrsky has signed documents that will allow #French instructors to visit #training centers. "I welcome France's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen. I have already signed documents that will allow the first French instructors to visit our training centers soon and familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and personnel," he wrote on his Telegram channel following online talks with French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov also took part in the negotiations. Syrsky expressed hope that Kiev's other Western partners would join Paris' initiative. Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the possibility of sending Western countries’ ground troops to the zone of the special military operation. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky supported this idea, admitting that he could not publicly ask Western partners to send troops to the country, but would like them to do so and would never refuse. The chief of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, said that according to Moscow's sources, this contingent could reach 2,000 men. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that French instructors along with other representatives of military and special services of European countries were already functioning in Ukraine. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the appearance of foreign military contingents in Ukraine would be fraught with extremely negative consequences, including irreparable ones.

Fair Winds & Following Seas... We've the Watch! Honneurs rendus à nos 2 Freres d'Armes Tombés pour la France au Champ d'Honneur, par les Autorités de Nouvelle Calédonie.... Quelle tristesse Seigneur!

Armed gang members ambushed a van which transporting gang leader, Mohamed "The Fly", in Incarville-France. 2 prison guards were killed, 3 wounded and the gang leader managed to escape. The gunmen seem to be armed with 5.56x45mm #NATO AR-15 carbine and a possible 7.62x39mm AK rifle.

Russia looking into reports about sending of French troops to Ukraine, says Kremlin The Russian Defense Ministry is currently looking into reports about #France sending its troops to #Ukraine, #Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry #Peskov told reporters. "We need to understand here whether this information is correct. Our military is looking into this information," Peskov said, commenting on reports that France had allegedly deployed its combat forces to Ukraine. Earlier, media reports said that France had sent 1,500 troops in support of Ukrainian forces in Slavyansk, citing a statement by Stephen Bryen, a former US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTyuwjkiL1c

[JUST IN] Again, France's Macron doesn’t rule out sending troops to Ukraine if Russia breaks front lines French President Emmanuel #Macron does not rule out that sending troops to #Ukraine could be considered based on Kiev’s request if Russian forces broke through the front lines. "I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out. We have undoubtedly been too hesitant by defining the limits of our action," he said in an interview with The Economist, when asked if he stood by what he had said about possibly sending ground troops to Ukraine. The French leader pointed out that "many countries <...> understood" Paris’s approach and agreed "that this position was a good thing." - "If the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there were a Ukrainian request - which is not the case today - we would legitimately have to ask ourselves this question," Macron noted. "At the #NATO summit in the summer of 2022, we all ruled out the delivery of tanks, deep-strike missiles, aircraft. We are now all in the process of doing this, so it would be wrong to rule out the rest," he added. Macron said on February 26 that some 20 Western countries taking part in a Paris meeting on further assistance for Kiev had discussed the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. According to Macron, no consensus was reached on the issue but such a possibility cannot be ruled out in the future. Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (#SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin pointed out on March 19 that France was already training troops to be sent to Ukraine.

France-Russia relations hit rock bottom, says former envoy to Paris Relations between Moscow and Paris have bottomed out, former Russian Ambassador to Paris Alexander #Orlov told the RFI radio station. "Our relations have never been as poor as they are now," Orlov said. He noted that recently French President Emmanuel Macron "has made a number of questionable moves that have increased the divide between France and Russia even further." According to Orlov, these moves include the French leader's statement regarding the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. "The second is the proposal for an Olympic truce during the games in Paris, where Russian athletes have not been invited," the former ambassador said. He also pointed to the "strange invitation of Russian representatives to the ceremony celebrating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy without inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin." "Such a gesture can be seen as an insult," the diplomat added. On February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that representatives of about 20 Western states raised the issue of sending group troops to Ukraine during the meeting in Paris. According to Macron, the participants were unable to reach a consensus on this issue.