This French general and Ukraine expert ‘admires the Swiss army’ This French general and Ukraine expert ‘admires the Swiss army’

The former Foreign Legionnaire and grandson of a Russian soldier who left Russia in 1918 is now retired. However, he is far from retirement: the retired lieutenant general appears on the French television channel LCI as an expert on the war in Ukraine. However, he does not own the Twitter account “La Punchline de Yakovleff”, which collects his best sayings and sayings.

General Jakoflew is a member of the «Institut des hautes études de défense national» (Institute for National Defense Studies). In an interview with Watson, he admires the “heroic” past of the Swiss army, notes the great need for manpower in the war in Ukraine and wants to import the “RS/WK” model to France.

What does “Swiss Army” mean to you?
General Michel Yakovlev: For me it is the memory of a heroic Swiss army mobilized during World War II. In the end, she persuaded Hitler not to invade Switzerland, as he was afraid to embark on a complex operation.

Who made you so excited?
In 1976 I was drafted into the French army and then as a professional soldier. From that moment on I got to know Swiss comrades. During the Cold War, the Swiss army was very large, well trained and well cared for.

Have you visited Swiss military sites?
Yes. I come from the cavalry, as they call the armored troops in France. That is why in 1995 I visited the military base of Thun, where the training center for mechanized troops is located. The training I saw there on the Leopard 2 tank was comparable to that of the French and also that of Sweden; Switzerland had a collaboration with the Swedish army, which was also equipped with the German tank.

Do you have any other connections to Switzerland?
I had an aunt who lived in Switzerland and died there. I used to visit her as a child. I read a book called Civil Defense. If I remember correctly, it was given to the newlyweds along with the family book. In this manual, intended for the Cold War, there were many explanations and explanations: how to protect yourself from a nuclear explosion; how to deal with polluted water; how to manage the food supply for the family; how to stock up; how to make bandages and improvised stretchers etc. It really was a comprehensive book.

On TV on LCI, where you are an adviser on the war in Ukraine, you paid tribute to the Swiss army and said that the French army could learn a lesson from them. How?
In France, it is currently being discussed whether the army should be given more depth, or more “mass”. Our professional army with 106,000 men is ultimately quite limited in terms of soldiers as a resource. Even though those who are knocked out can still be called up for five years.

What is the overall strength of the French army?
In total, the French army – army, air force and navy – consists of 250,000 men. As mentioned, the army has a strength of no less than 106,000 soldiers, which roughly corresponds to the manpower of the Swiss army after mobilization. There are also some 20,000 civilian employees. An expansion from 40,000 to 80,000 reservists is currently planned. These are whether the mentioned ex-servicemen who are on call, or civilians who are in training, go home and in the worst case are called up as an operational reserve.

Are these trained civilians comparable to the Swiss militiamen?
no And that is exactly what needs to change.

President Jacques Chirac abolished compulsory military service in 1996. Would you support the reintroduction?
Personal – yes. But it should be within reasonable limits. Not too short, not too long.

And the professional army should stay?
Yes, the conscript army would be intended as a reserve and would be deployed alongside the regular army. So we would have that extra depth.

Besides the military aspect, what else do you like about the Swiss army?

These are civilians who complete their military training and then return to the civilian sphere but still have a connection to the military. They can list their military rank, e.g. officer, on their resume and their commitment will be recognized by the society. Their laws force employers to exempt citizens who have to go to the World Cup. And then it’s all accepted by society.

But not everyone in Switzerland wants to join the army. That’s what community service is for.
Exactly, and your community service model is very successful. I would even say that their model is more efficient than ours, because it is simply better thought out from an organizational point of view. [Anm. d. Red.: Der Zivildienst ist in der Schweiz dem Eidg. Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung (WBF) untergeordnet.]

Do you think the Swiss army model is really transferable to France?
This brings us back to the question of whether conscription should be reintroduced. That would be complicated. At the same time, conscription is also mourned in France.

“It never got that far” – what does that mean?
I am thinking of certain problems that weaken social ties in France: brutality, polemics about origins, etc. The military service allowed for a social mix that, as I have seen, was very real and lively. The French soldiers were all still attached to the army. Of course, there was also a whole sense of humor about the military back then: the Coluche jokes [französischer Komödiant] about the army, films like “Mais où est donc passé la 7e compagnie” and “Les bidasses en vadrouille” which mocked the army and the recurring character of the drunken adjutant. But these jokes and taunts were benign.

What units did you command during your career?
As an active officer, I enlisted in the Foreign Legion with the rank of lieutenant. I decided to do this because the Legion had built up an extremely gross myth around itself. Twenty years later, I commanded the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment in Orange [Orange ist eine Stadt im Süden Frankreichs].

Were they also in war zones?
I was in the Gulf War in 1991. It wasn’t a big war for us French. A little later I spent more than a year and a half in the Balkans during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

What is your opinion on the war in Ukraine?
I see a people fighting for their freedom. They are far more willing to do this than the tyrants understand or we have understood.

In 1991, the two separated, but parted ways on good terms. From 2014, the Donbass then became the school of the current army through the rotation of Ukrainian military personnel deployed there. Putin did not notice. Therefore, today he meets an army that was able to quickly mobilize a large number of troops. In addition to the Swiss model, I also see a Ukrainian model for France: a hard core, the professional army, and a mobilizable part that supplies personnel to the professional army.

In a Ukraine-like situation: how long could the French army hold out?

Your name sounds Eastern European. Where does he come from?
My grandfather’s name was Ivan Jakowlef and he came from a family with a long military tradition. He became an opponent of the tsarist regime, resigned from the army and joined the socialist revolutionaries. In 1905 he fled Russia under scandalous circumstances, but returned in 1917. He then supported Kerensky’s government, which was subsequently overthrown by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution. In 1918 he returned to Russia for the last time and finally emigrated to France in 1925. He was neither a red nor a white Russian. I like to say: a pink Russian.