Did they intend to take up arms?

This is a hypothesis considered by the French authorities, after 14 Ukrainian legionnaires were arrested on Tuesday, March 1, in Paris, in a bus leaving for Poland.

On board the vehicle, other passengers were probably going to fight in Ukraine, we learned on Wednesday from military sources. 

Nine of these legionnaires benefited from a permission which however did not allow them to leave the territory, when the other five were in a situation of "irregular absence", of which four were already considered as "missing", declared to the AFP General Alain Lardet, the commander of the Foreign Legion. 

Conflict in Ukraine: Address of General Alain LARDET commanding the Foreign Legion to his legionnaires and their families.



https://t.co/9d5fS5lkge pic.twitter.com/BrYbu5NxP5

— Foreign Legion (@LegionEtrangere) March 1, 2022

No tensions between communities

It was immediately impossible to determine whether the 14 men intended to fight or simply assist their families who had fled Ukraine, we learned from several military sources.

No weapons or prohibited equipment were found in their luggage, they added. 

Conversely, among the other civilian passengers on the bus, some were in possession of materials indicating that they were going to fight, detailed one of these sources. 

The Foreign Legion is an elite unit of the French army of more than 9,000 men, which can be joined by recruits aged 17 to 39 from all over the world.

After several years or in the name of the "blood shed" in combat, the "white kepis" can become French. 

Among them, 710 soldiers of Ukrainian origin, 210 of whom have already been naturalized, and 450 of Russian origin, but "no tension between the communities", insisted General Lardet. 

Since the beginning of the Russian offensive, however, there has been "a big disturbance among Ukrainians, worried about their families", he continued. 

Prohibition to cross the border 

The Legion grants these men, if they request it, "an exceptional fifteen-day leave" to go to a country bordering Ukraine in order to "welcome" and "secure" their relatives, but it forbidden to cross the border, according to his commander. 

If 25 of these exceptional permissions were signed on Tuesday and "many others" will be signed on Wednesday, the nine arrested in Paris only had a classic permission confining them to the French "metropolis", he commented.

They should not be punished, however, because the new permission regime had been mishandled to them.

The five others committed "a gross fault against the code of honor of the legionnaires" and will be "sanctioned by days off". 

In total, 25 legionnaires of Ukrainian origin have deserted for a week, half of them to fight the Russians, estimates General Lardet.

"The Legion has cut ties. They are committed to a cause that I do not judge," commented the senior officer. 

With AFP

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