France may bring about 1,500 military personnel to combat readiness in April for deployment in Ukraine. This was stated by the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, quoted by TASS.
"New information is emerging about the preparation by Paris of a military contingent to be sent to Ukraine. For this purpose, the command of the French Foreign Legion at the beginning of March approved the composition of a battalion tactical group of about 1,500 people", she pointed out at a press conference.
Zakharova noted that the group is expected to be brought to full combat readiness for operational deployment in the Ukrainian theater of operations in April.
"Meanwhile, the French continue that part of their history that should generally go into oblivion: the business of their ancestors, who were engaged in the secret export from Ukraine of cultural values, including ancient Byzantine icons, for their alleged - as they call it - storage in France", she also pointed out.
Zakharova stated that the regime in Kiev "continues to purge the media space and introduce total censorship in the country".
"On March 28, the French newspaper Le Figaro published an article about 70 journalists killed in Ukraine and 250 closed media," the spokeswoman said. "Better late than never. Just one question: we talked about all this, including with Le Figaro, who interviewed representatives of the Foreign Ministry.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said that sending Western troops to Ukraine was not ruled out in the future, stressing that "all options" to help Kiev "are possible".
However, his statement was quickly refuted by the allies. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assured that the Alliance has no plans to send combat units to Ukraine.
Most European countries - including Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland - have also confirmed they have no such plans. However, the three Baltic countries - the most exposed to Russian attack if Moscow succeeds in its war against Ukraine - are much more open to the idea.