“Le Monde” met General Thierry Burkhard, who has been expressed for the first time since the beginning of the conflict, February 24th.
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This is the first time he has been expressed since the beginning of the open war between Russia and Ukraine, on February 24th. The Chief of Staff of the Armies (CEMA), General Thierry Burkhard, received Le Monde, Friday, March 4, in his Balard office, the French Pentagon, located in the 15 e district of Paris. One hour between two meetings of a time now punctuated on one side by the delicate steering of the withdrawal of Mali, and on the other with the Ukrainian fighting and the new commitments of France in this conflict of unpublished violence At the borders of NATO.
The Ukrainian conflict “was part of the options in the summer of 2021, when I took office,” says General Burkhard. “Information said that the Russians would expect favorable weather conditions, that is, it’s cold”, before attacking Ukraine. “The outbreak of the attack was not a surprise,” he says. “The previous evening, accurate information has been shared by the Allies”, according to him. As soon as the first bombings took place on the night of February 23rd to 24th, “we have activated the planned measures, it summarizes. Each post that was to be strengthened within the armies was reinforced.”
There were differences in intelligence analyzes between the French and the Anglo-Saxon countries, General Burkhard recognizes, following the information of the world. “The Americans said that the Russians would attack, they were right. Our services thought rather than the conquest of Ukraine would have a monstrous cost and that the Russians had other options” to drop the regime of Volodyymyr Zelensky, details- he. A form of caution vis-à-vis the US intelligence inherited in particular from the war in Iraq of 2003.
A new operation center of operations
These past debates, from the beginning of the fighting, on February 24, France began to deploy ways to integrate into the plans of NATO. From noon, a first gust patrol was sent to the Polish sky, border of Ukraine. Since then, France continues to provide two patrols from six to eight hours a day. The burst takes off from the base of Mont-de-Marsan (Landes), the renovation of Istres (Bouches-du-Rhône), fly to Poland and return to France after their daily mission. Awacs, these intelligence aircraft equipped with radars, leave, regularly from the base of Avord, in the Cher.
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