Russia called the French ambassador for an explanation: The dead French in Kharkiv were members of the regular French Army - They were not mercenaries...

Russia called the French ambassador for an explanation: The dead French in Kharkiv were members of the regular French Army - They were not mercenaries...

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Russia-France relations are showing a sharp deterioration after the Russian strike on a mercenary base in Kharkiv, which killed more than 60 and injured at least 20 soldiers.

Moscow today summoned the French ambassador to the foreign ministry for an explanation regarding the unprecedented number of dead French soldiers in Kharkiv.

Moscow considers that these are soldiers of the regular French Army, officers, special forces, advisers, etc., who were sent on behalf of the French government. This also explains their large number in a specific location in Kharkiv and not on the front lines of the war.

The French ambassador was summoned for an explanation

Russia today summoned the French ambassador in Moscow, Pierre Levy, to the Russian Foreign Ministry for an explanation. According to some sources, he was given a leave of absence. 

Yesterday, Moscow announced that Russian forces had carried out a precision strike on a building housing "foreign fighters" in Kharkiv. The Russian Defense Ministry said the fighters were mainly French mercenaries and the building was destroyed.

"In connection with the destruction by the Russian armed forces of a temporary point of deployment of foreign fighters in Kharkiv, among which were dozens of Frenchmen, the French ambassador was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" , said the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.

Earlier today, Paris refuted these Russian claims about the presence of French mercenaries in Ukraine.

"France is helping Ukraine with supplies of military equipment and military training, in full compliance with international law, in order to help Ukraine in its battle to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, " the French Foreign Ministry said.

The presence of armed Frenchmen in Ukraine's second-largest city has sparked speculation about who they are working for, Scott Ritter, a former CIA officer and former UN weapons inspector, told Sputnik. The American expert drops a real bombshell saying that not all French soldiers were mercenaries.

It essentially reveals the direct involvement of the West in the battles with the Russian forces, which comes as a result, among other things, of the scarcity of the Ukrainian army, but also of the great impact that a defeat in Ukraine's proxy war will have for NATO.

Ritter said it potentially exposes covert direct French involvement in NATO's proxy war against Russia.

"If they are fighting for the Ukrainian side, whatever their nationality, they are now a legitimate target," Ritter noted.

The American expert focused on two main aspects of the attack.

He said it shows the Russian military no longer discriminates between foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian soldiers.

"Russia has shown no hesitation in eliminating foreign mercenaries fighting on behalf of the Ukrainian military ," he said. It also raises the intriguing possibility that French troops could be directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict against Russia.

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