No, France has not sent combat troops to Ukraine

What’s the claim?

Multiple social media users claim that France is deploying combat troops to Ukraine in response to the conflict with Russia, sharing a blog post published by Asia Times, authored by Stephen Bryen, as purported evidence.

The blog post cites a report from the Russian news service Sputnik referencing information from the Russian Telegraph channel Military Chronicle, indicating that France has officially dispatched troops to Ukraine. It further claimed that soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Regiment of France's Foreign Legion are providing support to the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade stationed in Slavyansk.

Brexit Party politician Jim Ferguson also shared the claim, citing the Asia Times blog post on X (formerly Twitter), and his post was viewed over 30,000 times. Additionally, another user on X sharing the claim wrote, "France sends combat troops to Ukraine battlefront (Asia Times)," which garnered over 99,000 views at the time of writing this story.

Screenshot of claims made online. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Logically Facts also found that the claim was shared by a few Indian media outlets, including Hindustan Times and the Times of India.

However, the claim is false. The author of the original blog post has acknowledged that the source was Sputnik, a Russian state propaganda outlet.

What we found

On May 6, 2024, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs issued a statement on its official X account (archive here) denying the now-viral claim. The post featured a screenshot of the viral blog post marked with a red cross, accompanied by a caption stating, “FAKE NEWS ALERT Disinformation campaigns on France’s support to Ukraine are as active as ever. Let’s have a look France has not sent troops to #Ukraine.”

The Guardian reported in February 2024 that French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the possibility of Western troops potentially being sent to Ukraine. This statement prompted a rare phone call between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu. During the call, Shoigu warned France against deploying troops to Ukraine, stating it would create problems for France. However, French officials later clarified that any deployment would likely involve troops for training and other operations away from the frontlines.

According to a report by France 24, in a recent interview with the Economist published on May 2, 2024, Macron reiterated that he did not rule out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. This means that he is leaving open the possibility of France sending troops to Ukraine in certain circumstances, mainly if there is a request from Ukraine and if Russia breaches Ukrainian front lines. However, it does not necessarily mean such a decision has been made or is imminent. It indicates that Macron is considering the option but has not committed.

Logically Facts has written a detailed article on Emmanuel Macron’s March 14, 2024, speech and the widespread misinformation online involving the narrative of French troops in Ukraine.

The article by Asia Times

The claim about France deploying troops to Ukraine originates from an article published in Asia Times (archived here), published on May 4, 2024, with the headline, “France sends troops to Ukraine: Russian report." The article added that 100 French Foreign Legion soldiers out of an expected 1,500 have arrived in Ukraine so far. However, there is no official information or any credible news reports to confirm this.

On May 6, 2024, the author, Stephen Bryen, appended a note to the original blog post, including a link to another post on Substack where it is clearly mentioned at the end that he "could be wrong" regarding the French government's role in sending troops to Ukraine. In the Substack post, Bryen provided sources and clarified his approach to reporting. The source he cited was an X post by Sputnik, (archived here) which is a Russian state propaganda outlet. The post refers to the Russian Telegram channel and other Russian officials alleging the presence of French troops in Ukraine.

Furthermore, an additional update to the blog post on May 7 included a link to an unreliable news website, "Pravda," alleging to provide insights from Russian military bloggers specializing in military affairs.

The editors’ note added to the Asia Times article (Source: Asia Times/Screenshot)

The verdict

France has not deployed or sent combat troops to Ukraine. The French government has called the claim “fake” and “disinformation.” Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.