For French military, war in Ukraine prompts a shift in focus

For the past five years, French troops have been training at a NATO military base here, nestled among pine forests, for a conflict that seemed improbable. But Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has suddenly given a new raison d’être to the 200 or so French infantrymen posted in Tapa, a town about 60 miles from the Russian border.

>> Constant MéheutThe New York Times
Published : 11 May 2022, 03:21 PM
Updated : 11 May 2022, 03:21 PM

By bringing the threat of large-scale combat closer to home,the conflict in Ukraine has spurred France’s efforts to gear up for what Gen.Thierry Burkhard, France’s military chief of staff, calls “high-intensity war.”He said those efforts included improving his country’s ability to swiftlydeploy troops and defend against cyber and information warfare.

“The interest of European countries is to weaken Russia,”Burkhard said in an interview with The New York Times and the news serviceAgence France-Presse during a trip to Estonia last week.

His words seemed to echo those of Defense Secretary LloydAustin, who last month said America’s goal was to see Russia so “weakened” thatit would no longer have the power to invade a neighbouring state.

But in keeping with efforts by President Emmanuel Macron ofFrance to maintain an open diplomatic line with his Russian counterpart,Vladimir Putin, Burkhard added that weakening Russia would not mean wiping itout and that the West may need to work with Russia to build a future global“security architecture.”

Burkhard said that two months after the start of the war,there were already lessons to be learnt for the French army, one of the world’sstrongest but whose recent combat experience has been limited to facingguerrilla warfare and terrorism in the Middle East and Africa.

In Tapa, Burkhard met with the French 7th Battalion ofChasseurs Alpins, or Alpine hunters, an elite mountain infantry unit that wasrushed to the NATO base in mid-March as part of the alliance’s rapid militarybuildup on its eastern flank. At the base, French troops train alongsideBritish tank regiments, on terrain that is often snowy or marshy — a newreality for a battalion that until then had been deployed mostly to the aridlands of former French colonies, including twice to the West African nation ofMali.

“Let’s not fool ourselves,” Burkhard said. “It’s not becausewe fight in Mali and we succeed there that we know how to wage high-intensitywar. It’s not the same thing.”

The French military commander said that by denying Putin theswift victory that many analysts originally anticipated, Ukraine’s strongdefence had “forced a pause in Russia’s long-term strategy” to destabilise theWest and reimpose a Soviet-style sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.

“We have to take advantage of this pause,” Burkhard said,adding that European nations needed to untangle the “spider’s web” Putin hadwoven around them, hooking some on Russian gas and oil while making militarythreats and waging effective information warfare.

But Burkhard said that whatever the outcome of the war,“Russia is not going to disappear” and will need to be considered in futuretalks on European security.

In an interview, Lt Gen Martin Herem, commander of theEstonian Defense Forces, struck a more hostile tone toward Russia, saying itmust be driven from Ukrainian territory because any success it achieves “willcause huge damage in our region’s stability.”

But in a sign that the war in Ukraine may have helpedWestern allies overcome at least some differences, Burkhard said he supported astronger European presence in NATO, something Estonia has long requested. Thegeneral played down fears that Macron’s calls to strengthen Europe’s owndefences meant that he wanted to create a competitor to NATO’s presence on thecontinent.

Burkhard said one lesson from the war in Ukraine was “theimportance of strong morale,” comparing the low spirits of Russian troops, whichled some to surrender or sabotage vehicles, to the stubborn resistance of theUkrainian military. “Strong morale must be a constant concern for us,” he wrotein a letter to the army released last month.

Burkhard also said Russian troops “were more stretched thanthe Ukrainian defence,” resulting in logistical problems and a lack of soldiersto control captured territory that hampered their advance.

In Estonia, French soldiers operate in a British-led NATObattlegroup, alongside Estonian troops, and have participated in varioustraining exercises with names like “Bold Dragon” and “Winter Camp.”

Capt. Guillaume, who leads the French unit in Tapa and couldbe identified only by his first name, in keeping with French military rules,said the exercises were useful in understanding how “in a symmetrical fight,two armies with two different cultures can confront each other.”

But Michel Goya, a former French colonel and a militaryhistorian, said such exercises did not mask France’s main challenge today: beingable to swiftly deploy troops.

“The Russians carry out large-scale operations, and theydon’t know how to do it anymore — but neither do we,” he said, adding that theFrench army could only quickly deploy six combat regiments today compared with120 in 1990.

“We’ve forgotten what it’s like to fight, what it’s like tobe hit by artillery fire, what it’s like to have a lot of casualties all atonce,” said Goya, who was deployed with UN troops inside Sarajevo,Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1993, when the city was besieged by the Bosnian Serbarmy. “We put ourselves in the shoes of the Ukrainians and see everything thatwe lack.”

Unlike other European countries, France has refrained fromsending large amounts of weapons to Ukraine, an indication of its desire not toescalate tensions but also of its limited weapons stocks and productioncapabilities, Goya said.

France said last week that it had sent military equipmentworth 100 million euros, or about $105 million, so far. That is less thanEstonia and Germany, which have offered weapons worth $220 million and $140million, respectively, according to a database compiled by the Kiel Institutefor the World Economy, a German think tank.

Whatever the outcome of the war, Burkhard said Europe shouldmake the most of Russia’s stumble in Ukraine to “reorganise itself and buildits long-term strategy” against Putin.

But countering Russia will not mean ceasing to engage withit, the general said. France has made sure to keep talking with Putin despitethe war. “The long-term strategy cannot be ‘I make Russia disappear,’” Burkhardsaid. “It will not disappear.”

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