French General Vidaud to step down as military intelligence chief over Ukraine war 'failure'
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
According to reports, Fench General Eric Vidaud will step down from his post as military intelligence chief reportedly over his failure to accurately predict the war in Ukraine.Reports say Vidaud has been criticised for "insufficient briefings" and "failure to master the issues." The move has so far not been confirmed by the French defence ministry.French chief of staff Thierry Burkhard had earlier told a local newspaper that its intelligence services had failed to warn about the impending war. President Putin had launched the "special military operation" on February 24 surprising many in the Western nations even as he continued his dialogue with French President Macron.The Biden administration had warned for months that Russia was set to invade Ukraine. In fact, the White House in January had said Putin's forces would launch an attack between January 15 and February 15. However, over 1,50,000 Russian troops were massed by Putin on Ukraine's border since October last year as Ukraine prepared for the Russian threat urging more defence equipment from the US.French officials had however insisted that Russia was not going to launch a full-scale invasion even as President Putin sent troops to Belarus amid reports of Russian "encirclement" of Ukraine.Reports claimed the Biden administration had intentionally made its intelligence public in an attempt to put pressure on Putin and other leaders over the Russian invasion plans.