SHARE
COPY LINK

UKRAINE

French Foreign Legion troops desert to join fighting in Ukraine

The French army has prevented 14 Ukrainian members of the Foreign Legion from travelling east with the possible intention of joining the fighting in their homeland, their commander said on Wednesday, but a further 25 Ukrainian-born soldiers have already left.

French Foreign Legion troops desert to join fighting in Ukraine
Illustration photo: Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion march on the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade. Photo by Michel Euler / POOL / AFP

The Legion has reported 25 desertions by Ukrainian-born soldiers, with around a dozen of them believed to be planning to help the fight against the Russian army.

The Legion has “cut them loose”, commander Alain Lardet told AFP. “They are fighting for a cause that it is not my role to judge.”

Nine in the group that were stopped were on leave but not authorised to travel abroad when they were stopped Tuesday in Paris. The others were absent without leave or considered missing, added Lardet. 

They were arrested on a coach headed for Poland neighbouring Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion for the past week.

The Foreign Legion, an elite corps comprising around 9,500 soldiers, is the only French army unit in which foreign nationals can enlist.

READ ALSO What you need to know about the French Foreign Legion

They qualify for French nationality after several years of service, or sooner if they distinguish themselves in battle.

It was not immediately clear whether the 14 were planning to join the fighting in Ukraine, or simply help their families who had fled Ukraine, the military command said. No weapons or other unauthorised equipment was found on them.

But some of the civilian passengers on the bus were carrying gear that led the authorities to believe that they were planning to join the fighting.

The Foreign Legion counts 710 soldiers of Ukrainian origin of whom 210 have been naturalised, and 450 Russian-born troops.

While there has been “no tension between the communities” since Russia invaded its neighbour, Ukrainians in the Foreign Legion have been “very worried for their families”, Lardet said.

They can apply for an exceptional two-week leave to travel to one of Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to assist their families fleeing the war, but are not authorised to cross into Ukraine itself, he said.

On Tuesday, 25 such permits were granted, with several more expected Wednesday, but none of the Ukrainians arrested on Tuesday were in possession of such a document.

The nine who had regular leave for France only are unlikely to be punished because they had not been told properly that there was now a legal way to join their families, the commander said.

But the five others will be ordered into military detention for an unspecified number of days, having committed “a serious violation of the Legion members’ code of honour”, he said.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

UKRAINE

France charges two Moldovans over coffin graffiti in Paris

French prosecutors on Saturday charged two Moldovans suspected of painting coffins and a slogan urging an end to Ukraine war on the facade of a prominent Paris newspaper, a judicial source said.

France charges two Moldovans over coffin graffiti in Paris

It was just the latest in a series of such acts in the capital in recent weeks. French officials have repeatedly warned of the risks of disinformation and other attacks by Russia over France’s support for Kyiv.

Tension between Paris and Moscow has increased since President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this year he had not ruled out sending troops to Ukraine.

The two men, who carried Moldovan passports, were arrested overnight Thursday-Friday after six red coffins and the phrase “Stop the Death, Mriya, Ukraine” were painted on the building of right-wing daily Le Figaro. Mriya means “dream” in Ukrainian.

They are being held on charges of destruction of property and participating in “an effort to demoralise the army to harm national defence in peacetime”, the source said.

Six similar coffins were found early Thursday on the facade of the Agence France-Presse headquarters in central Paris, not far from the Figaro offices.

A source close to the case said the two Moldovans claimed to have been paid around €100 to paint the graffiti.

A separate investigations has been opened after graffiti showing French Mirage fighter jets in the form of coffins were found last Tuesday in three districts of Paris. They included the phrase “Mirages for Ukraine”.

Similar graffiti was discovered on the walls of the AFP building Monday.

Macron announced in early June that France would send Mirage-2000 fighter jets to Ukraine and train their Ukrainian pilots as part of a new military cooperation with Kyiv.

On June 8, French police said they were holding three young Moldovans suspected of being behind inscriptions of coffins in Paris with the slogan “French soldiers in Ukraine”.

They were later charged with property damage and released.

Moldova’s Foreign Minister Mihai Popsoi posted on X, formerly Twitter: “We regret and firmly condemn the incident”.

He said the “vandalism” was “part of hybrid tactics to harm our international image”.

Popsoi reiterated his comment on Saturday, denouncing an “instigation to hate”.

“We call on Moldovan citizens to be vigilant and not to allow themselves to be manipulated to the detriment of our country.”

SHOW COMMENTS