Russian state media claims France is sending 2,000 troops to Ukraine.
TASS reported that Russia's intelligence head Sergey Naryshkin claimed the French leadership "does not care about the deaths of ordinary French people or about the concerns of the generals."
The report cites French President Emmanuel Macron not ruling out the potential of sending Western troops to Ukraine.
There have been several widely viewed social media posts claiming that Macron has pledged to send troops to the war.
Some of the reports cited an article in the French newspaper Le Monde. But that report only included a supposed off-the-record quote in which Macron said he would "have some guys in Odessa" in a year, according to Newsweek.
Newsweek said here has been no promise to deploy NATO forces in Ukraine.
Several NATO countries, including the US, Germany, and the UK, ruled against sending ground troops to Ukraine, following Macron's statement.
However, according to the Russian foreign intelligence chief, the troops are going to be sent and the French military "fears that such a large military unit cannot be transferred and stationed in Ukraine unnoticed."
Naryshkin supposedly added, "It will thus become a legitimate priority target for attacks by the Russian armed forces. This means that it will suffer the fate of all the French who have ever come to the Russian world with a sword."
He also vowed that Western states would "do what is needed" to prevent Russia's victory in this conflict.
