UPDATE - France already preparing some 2,000 troops for Ukraine, Russia claims

ADDS COMMENTS FROM SERGEY NARYSHKIN

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - France is preparing 2,000 troops to send them to Ukraine, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said Wednesday.

"The contingent for sending to Ukraine is already being prepared. At the initial stage, it will amount to about 2,000 people," Sergey Naryshkin said in an interview with Russia's state news agency TASS.

Naryshkin said French President Emmanuel Macron is hiding the truth about the number of French soldiers already killed in Ukraine for fear of mass protests in his country.

"Sooner or later, Macron will have to reveal the ugly truth, but he will strive to delay the confessions as much as possible.

"As they say in the Elysee Palace, the number of French dead 'has already exceeded a psychologically significant threshold.' The release of such sensitive data can provoke citizens to protest, especially against the background of mass anti-government protests by farmers across the country," he said.

Naryshkin argued that French military leadership "fears discontent" among active mid-level officers.

"Among the dead, there are 'disproportionately many' of them, and already at the current stage there are problems with finding 'volunteers' for rotation and 'replacing those who have dropped out' in the Ukrainian theater of military operations," he said.

He claimed that the French military is “visibly concerned" about the increased number of French soldiers, and said they also fear such a significant unit will not be able to be sent to Ukraine quietly and be stationed there.

"Thus, it (the French contingent) will become a legitimate priority target for attacks from the Russian Armed Forces. This means that the fate of all Frenchmen who have ever come to the territory of the Russian world with a sword would await it," he added.

Last month, Macron refused to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, where Russia launched a "special military operation" two years ago. The idea, however, was rejected by the allies.

*Burc Eruygur in Istanbul contributed to this story