The French plan is for the army to be able in 2027 to project a division, or 19,000 men, in less than 30 days. Currently, only a thousand French soldiers are stationed in Cincu, Romania.
A thousand soldiers is obviously very few, compared to the 1,200 kilometers of front between Ukraine and Russia. Even the Dutch Prime Minister candidate to head NATO has ruled out any possibility of sending ground troops to Ukraine. “I see it more as a message to the French, a call for action, rather than a real threat to Russia,” says a senior officer.