[Gen Eric Vidaud was commander of special forces until he took on the military intelligence role seven months ago. (Photo by= ECPAD)]

The head of French military intelligence, Gen Eric Vidaud, loses his job after failing to predict Russia's war in Ukraine, reports say. Seven months after he took on the role, one report said he was blamed for "inadequate briefings" and a "lack of mastery of subjects", BBC reported.
 
The US correctly assessed that Russia was planning a large-scale invasion, while France concluded it was unlikely. Gen Vidaud was blamed for that by France's military chief, a source said. However, the military source told the AFP news agency that his job was to provide "military intelligence on operations, not on premeditation". As Gen Vidaud's service concluded that Russia had the means to invade Ukraine, the source said that "what happened proves him right".
 
Early in March the head of French armed forces, Gen Thierry Burkhard acknowledged that French intelligence had not been up to the level of US or UK briefings, which were publicized to pile pressure on Russia's Vladimir Putin. France's misreading of President Putin was all the more embarrassing because President Emmanuel Macron had spoken to him regularly in the days leading up to the invasion on 24 February. Intelligence specialist Prof Alexandre Papaemmanuel told AFP it’s too easy to blame military intelligence for the failure, which lay with France's entire intelligence community.