Paris has played a highly active role in NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, delivering billions of euros-worth of war materiel and repeatedly threatening to deploy ground troops.
France will need to prove its ability to wage war with Russia in large-scale exercises planned for next year, a senior commander has said.
“We used to play war. Now there’s a designated enemy, and we train with people with whom we’d actually go to war,” French Land Forces Commander General Bertrand Toujouse told European media, commenting on France’s plans to deploy a brigade’s worth of troops to Romania for the Dacian Spring 2025 drills next May.