France allowed six Russian deserters to stay in the country – The Guardian.

France grants temporary stay permits to Russian deserters

The French authorities have issued temporary stay permits to six Russian deserters who fled the war in Ukraine. This is reported by the British publication The Guardian.

This is the first significant case where a group of deserters has been allowed to stay in a European Union country while their application for political asylum is being considered.

«This is the first Time an EU country has admitted a group of deserters without any travel documents or foreign passports», – quotes The Guardian Ivan Chuvilev, a spokesperson for the group Go By The Forest, which helps Russian soldiers desert and facilitated this case.

According to Chuvilev, France's decision to accept Russians may encourage other Russian soldiers to desert and create a precedent for other Western countries. «We hope this marks the beginning of more deserters being allowed into Europe», – he added.

Overall, the organization Go By The Forest has helped over 2,000 military personnel flee abroad, notes The Guardian. Among the mentioned group of Russians are those who have already fought against Ukraine, as well as conscripts and officers who managed to escape before being sent to the front.

All six Russian soldiers arrived in Paris on separate flights over the past few months, after fleeing from Russia to Kazakhstan in 2022 and 2023.

According to Chuvilev, the French authorities have carefully checked each of the deserters for several months for «a strong, consistent anti-war position». 

No unified position on deserters in Europe

Western countries have long faced the issue of dealing with Russian soldiers who have deserted, and there is currently no unified position in the European Union on how exactly they should be treated, writes the publication.

Recall that the new government of France announced its intention to submit a new immigration law to parliament at the beginning of 2025, a year after heated debates on the previous version of this law. 

Notably, the latest immigration law, which came into force in January 2024, was the subject of intense discussions. President Emmanuel Macron's party, which at the time held a relative majority, pushed the law through due to the abstention of the far-right "National Rally".