French special forces preparing to counter attack on Ukraine from Belarus

French special forces conducted top-secret exercises in late 2024. They were preparing to repel an attack from Belarus on Kyiv in case of deployment in Ukraine. The French Aid to Ukraine reported.

The exercises were held even before French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the possibility of European troops being sent to Ukraine.

In the last months of 2024, the French army conducted a multi-week operational preparatory maneuver at a French training ground, information about which is kept in the strictest confidence.

Intelligence Online reports that the exercises were called Perseus. They were based on an analysis of the experience of Ukrainian maneuvers that helped contain the Russian invasion in February 2022. More than 3,000 French troops practiced their skills in an area similar to a section of the Dnieper River north of Kyiv.

Last fall, in complete secrecy, Paris mobilized all the personnel of the Army Special Forces Command topractice a scenario of deploying troops to Ukraine as part of a week-long exercise codenamed Perseus. The French command chose a terrain similar in relief to the Dnipro River in the northern part of the Kyiv region, which was supposed to bring the soldiers closer to the conditions of a possible battlefield. The units’ tactics were based on the experience of Ukrainian maneuvers that succeeded in deterring the Russian invasion in February 2022.

“During the week, the skills and equipment of 3,200 soldiers were tested. The teams that conducted the training focused on tactical skills in using drones, electronic warfare, and reconnaissance, as well as on the compatibility of units in high-intensity combat,” the journalists report.

It is reported that personnel of the 1st and 13th Airborne Regiments, which are part of the Special Operations Forces of the Land Forces, were involved in the exercise. However, a number of auxiliary units that provided technical support and information support are of interest.
In their research, the journalists reported that the Center for Interagency Operations, which collected and analyzed satellite images, also participated in the exercise. Their activities were accompanied by constant flights of a number of reconnaissance aircraft, in particular, Chinese Mavic 3T thermal imaging drones. Together with them, intelligence was provided by the 6th Technical Intelligence Company, which installed radio jammers and monitored the space in search of radio sources of Russian radio stations, such as Aqueduct, Arakhis, and Azart.

It is worth noting the involvement of specialists from the 712th Company, which specializes in cyber operations and monitored social media, especially Telegram, during the exercise to collect information on the movement of enemy troops.

At the same time, the article noted that despite using the latest high-tech equipment, the French side did not use FPV strike copters in the operation, which could be a significant drawback.

However, the situation is rapidly changing, as in January of this year, the French 3rd Regiment of Combat Helicopters began practicing maneuvers withthe active use of attack drones to support the deployment of troops. The FPV drones were launched by operators directly from the Gazelle helicopter for reconnaissance and fire support.