French Chief of Staff Burkhard: Russia sees France as its main adversary in Europe

French Chief of Staff Thierry Burkhard held a press conference at the Ministry of Defense in the capital, Paris. Burkhard stated that Russia views France as its "main adversary in Europe."

Stating that Russia's perception of Paris as its primary enemy stems largely from France's support for Ukraine in the war that began in February 2022, Burkhard said, "This was (Russian President) Putin's statement."

Burkhard said that France is not currently under the threat of a direct attack by Russia, but that Putin has many other options for conducting hybrid warfare, such as disinformation, cyberattacks, and espionage.

Burkhard expressed that all of these are activities that Russia is currently carrying out as a "significant danger," noting that these methods include sabotage of undersea infrastructure, disinformation campaigns in France, and acts of espionage. Burkhard emphasized that France now has to defend itself against Russia on multiple fronts.

Burkhard stated that the maneuvers of Russian satellites in space are carried out with the aim of "obstructing the orbits of their satellites and spying on them." Saying that Russian nuclear submarines regularly enter the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean and that they want to monitor regions that are important for France as well as the British, Burkhard noted that there are frequent frictions with Russian aircraft in the air over the Black Sea, Syria, the Mediterranean, and sometimes the North Atlantic.