Amongst different issues, the brokers course of satellite tv for pc imagery offered by France to Ukraine
Dozens of French operatives from the Directorate-Normal for Exterior Safety (DGSE) have been deployed to Ukraine amid the continuing battle between Moscow and Kiev, Le Figaro newspaper has reported, citing an intelligence supply.
The supply advised the newspaper’s senior worldwide correspondent Georges Malbrunot that “about fifty males from the DGSE Motion Service have been deployed in Ukraine because the starting of the Russian invasion.” The brokers are performing completely different duties within the nation, amongst these being processing satellite tv for pc imagery offered by Paris to Kiev, Malbrunot added.
The spies are additionally working with “sure materiel” offered to Ukraine, “in all probability” together with French-made Ceasar self-propelled howitzers, Le Figaro additionally reported.
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France has been among the many high supporters of the Ukrainian authorities within the ongoing battle, sending in assorted gear to prop them up of their combat in opposition to Russia. Moscow has repeatedly urged the West to cease “pumping” Ukraine with weaponry, warning that such help would solely extend the hostilities.
Russia despatched troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to offer the areas of Donetsk and Lugansk particular standing throughout the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, have been first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s fundamental purpose was to make use of the ceasefire to purchase time and “create highly effective armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin acknowledged the Donbass republics, which have since joined the Russian Federation, as impartial states, and demanded that Ukraine formally declare itself a impartial nation that may by no means be a part of any Western army bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was fully unprovoked.