France's military intelligence chief is leaving his post after Paris failed to accurately predict that Russia would launch a full-scale attack on Ukraine, unlike other Western allies, sources with knowledge of his exit said. 

General Eric Vidaud has led the Direction of Military Intelligence (DRM) only since last summer but is immediately to step down from his role a military source, who asked not be named, told AFP. 

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The source confirmed a report on the French l'Opinion website which cited an internal defense ministry investigation that criticised "insufficient briefings" and "failure to master the issues." 

There had been rumors within the army that the reason for his departure was because he could have been another post, though in the end this was not the case, another source told AFP. 

In the months leading up to Russia's military actions in Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin, France's assessments and predictions were a stark contrast to those by allies, including the U.S. and Britain, who had warned that a major military assault was imminent. 

Senior figures from French President Emmanuel Macron's government insisted there was no suggestion of a full-scale invasion. Macron also kept diplomacy going to the last minute, meeting Putin in person in the Kremlin and attempting to organize a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden. Macron has prioritized dealing with the war rather than campaigning for the presidential election in April, which has been a particularly sensitive issue. 

In March, France's top general Thierry Burkhard admitted in an interview with Le Monde newspaper that there had been differences in the analyses between France and the U.S. when it had to come to predicting what would happen between Russia and Ukraine. 

"The Americans said the Russians were going to attack and they were right," said Burkhard. 

"Our services rather thought that the invasion of Ukraine would have a monstrous cost (for Russia) and that the Russians had other options" to achieve their goals, he continued. 

Several weeks before the assault, the U.S. decided to use its high-quality intelligence to make the information public as a way of attempting to put pressure on Putin. 

Alexandre Papaemmanuel, professor at the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Paris and a specialist in intelligence, said Washington had employed a new tactic in using intelligence to try to pressure a foreign leader. He said that "The warning is for the entire (intelligence) community. You have to be efficient and meet all the threats." 

However, a military source said that the DRM's main role was to provide intelligence on operations, and not on intentions. 

Its services had concluded that Russia "had the means to invade Ukraine and what happened showed that it was right," the source said.

The Russian-Ukraine conflict had exposed the differences between the intelligence services of France and those of the UK and U.S., which have larger budgets and more room for maneuver in terms of surveillance law, according to Le Monde. 

"Even if this reliance on Anglo-Saxon intelligence has existed for a long time, particularly in the fight against terrorism and in space, the war in Ukraine has shed light on it in a crude way," the paper wrote.