TAPA, Estonia — For the past five years, French troops at a NATO military base here, nestled among pine forests, have been training for a conflict that seemed unlikely. But the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine has suddenly given a new raison d’etre to the 200 or so French infantrymen stationed in Tapa, a town about 60 miles from the Russian border.
By bringing the threat of large-scale fighting closer to home, the conflict in Ukraine has fueled France’s efforts to prepare for what General Thierry Burkhard, the French military chief of staff, calls “a high-intensity war.” He said those efforts included improving his country’s ability to rapidly deploy troops and defend itself against cyber and information warfare.
“The interest of European countries is to weaken Russia,” General Burkhard said in an interview with DailyExpertNews and Agence France-Presse news agency, during a trip to Estonia last week.
His words seemed to echo those of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, who last month said America’s goal was to see Russia so “weakened” that it would no longer have the power to control a neighboring state. to invade.
But in line with the efforts of President Emmanuel Macron of France to maintain an open diplomatic line with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, General Burkhard added that weakening Russia does not mean wiping it out, and that the West may need to cooperate with Russia. to build a future global “security architecture”.
General Burkhard said two months after the war started, there were already lessons to be learned for the French army, one of the strongest in the world, but whose recent combat experience has been limited to guerrilla warfare and terrorism in the Middle East and Africa.
In Tapa, General Burkhard met with the French 7th Battalion Chasseurs Alpins, or Alpine fighters, an elite mountain infantry unit rushed to NATO base in mid-March as part of the alliance’s rapid military buildup on the eastern flank. At the base, French troops train alongside British tank regiments, in terrain often snowy or swampy – a new reality for a battalion that until then had mainly deployed to the arid regions of former French colonies, including twice to the West African nation from Mali.
“Let’s not kid ourselves,” General Burkhard said, “it’s not because we fight in Mali, and succeed there, that we know how to wage an intense war — it’s not the same.”
The French military commander said that by denying Putin the quick victory many analysts had initially expected, Ukraine’s strong defenses had “forced a pause in Russia’s long-term strategy” to destabilize the West and re-establish a Soviet-like sphere of influence. set in Eastern Europe. Europe.
“We should take advantage of this pause,” General Burkhard said, adding that European countries needed to untangle the “spider web” that Mr Putin had woven around them, some hooking on Russian gas and oil, as he met military threats and effective deployment. information warfare.
But General Burkhard said whatever the outcome of the war, “Russia will not disappear” and will have to be considered in future talks on European security.
In an interview, Lieutenant General Martin Herem, the commander of the Estonian Armed Forces, took a more hostile tone towards Russia, saying it must be evicted from Ukrainian territory because any success it achieves “will do enormous damage to the stability of our region.” cause.
