Following the controversy sparked by the Chief of the Defence Staff, who suggested that France should "accept losing its children", government spokesperson Maud Bregeon assured on Friday that they would "not go to fight and die in Ukraine".

Will the statement by Maud Bregeon, the government spokesperson, reassure the families? Or at least succeed in extinguishing the firestorm following Tuesday's statement by the Chief of the Defence Staff, who said that France should "accept losing its children"?

“Our children will not go and fight and die in Ukraine,” Maud Bregeon promised on Friday. “Let’s be very clear: our children, in the sense we mean it, will not go and fight and die in Ukraine,” she declared on TF1, reminding viewers that France has “a professional army,” before launching into an explanation. “The Chief of the Defence Staff was talking about all those soldiers who, and he mentions this a little before this segment, are deployed all over the world and are between 18 and 27 years old,” she added. “We cannot ignore that a number of these soldiers have fallen in foreign operations.”

As a reminder, on Tuesday, before the Congress of Mayors of France, General Mandon deemed it necessary for the country to restore its "strength of spirit to accept suffering in order to protect what we are" and to be ready to "accept losing our children." The political class reacted immediately, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) expressing "total disagreement" and Louis Aliot (RN) stating that "we must be ready to die for our country," but in a "just" war or one that threatens "the survival of the nation."

“The main risk would be failing to see what’s happening and failing to see the dangers we face,” Maud Bregeon insisted. When asked about the creation of a voluntary military service, she clarified that “discussions are underway” to “adapt” the Universal National Service (SNU). “But we’re not there yet,” she concluded.