The head of French military intelligence, General Éric Vidaud, will leave his post following in particular what was deemed to be an inadequacy of his services on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, AFP learned on Wednesday March 30 from sources close to the case.
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A military source confirmed the immediate departure of the head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM), according to information from
the Opinion site.
The latter quotes an internal source at the Ministry of the Armed Forces referring to "
insufficient briefings
" and a "
lack of mastery of subjects
".
Rumors for several days
According to the military source contacted by AFP, the DRM had been in the sights of the General Staff of the Armies since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
But the DRM “
does military intelligence on operations, not on intentionality
,” she said.
The service's productions concluded that Russia had the means to invade Ukraine.
“
What happened proves him right
,” she argued.
Read alsoGRU, FSB and SVR, Russian intelligence flaws in Ukraine
According to another military source interviewed by AFP and who also requested anonymity, the departure of the high-ranking officer had been the subject of rumors for a few days within the army.
But there was talk of another position being given to him, which ultimately would not have been the case.
General Vidaud was appointed to this post last summer, from the Special Operations Command (COS).
But his appointment had been the result of games of musical chairs that had made noise within the military community.
At the beginning of March, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, the Chief of the Defense Staff, General Thierry Burkhard, had admitted in the newspaper Le Monde to the differences of analysis between French and Anglo-Saxons. on the question of a possible invasion of Ukraine.
“
The Americans said the Russians were going to attack, they were right.
Our services rather thought that the conquest of Ukraine would have a monstrous cost and that the Russians had other options
” to bring down President Volodymyr Zelensky, he admitted.
