French “mercenaries” in Ukraine: the accusation made by Russia, widely relayed on social networks, has all the appearance of a new disinformation campaign against France, believes Paris, against a backdrop of growing diplomatic tensions with Moscow.
This informational offensive comes as France has recently increased its arms promises to Ukraine and is preparing to conclude a security agreement with kyiv.
In return, on Friday, the French ambassador in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be criticized for “the growing involvement of Paris in the conflict in Ukraine”.
Also read: Stéphane Séjourné: “Ukraine can count on France”
Last Wednesday, the Russian Minister of Defense announced that he had destroyed in a “precision strike” a building in Kharkiv (north-eastern Ukraine) serving as a “temporary deployment zone for mercenaries, most of whom were French citizens”.
Sixty fighters were “eliminated” and 20 injured, Moscow assures.
“France has no
mercenaries
, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere, unlike others”, reacted vigorously, denouncing “a new crude Russian manipulation”.
The word “mercenary” chosen by Moscow is not insignificant.
French law prohibits mercenarism, or the act of fighting for remuneration abroad, punishable by 5 years of imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros.
This term is also the one used by France to denounce the activities of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, accused for years by Paris of predation and war crimes in Africa.
On Monday, a pro-Russian French association, SOS Donbass, nevertheless echoed via the Russian agency Ria Novosti a list of names of 13 “French mercenaries” present in Kharkiv at the time of the Russian strike.
“The most important information - alive or dead, rank etc.
- will be communicated later, as well as other names,” declared the leader of SOS Donbass, the Franco-Russian Anna Novikova.
Foreign volunteers, including some French
According to a French source close to the matter, another list of 30 so-called French “mercenaries” is also circulating on Telegram.
“These two lists have high visibility on social networks” and are relayed on dozens of pro-Russian sites, underlines this source.
However, doubt remains over the very fact that French people died in Kharkiv.
In addition, some of the identities put forward on these lists are false, according to a French diplomatic source.
The war in Ukraine attracted foreign volunteers from the first months, including French, who went to fight alongside the soldiers from kyiv.
At the end of December, a security source estimated the number of French fighters in Ukraine at “a few dozen, less than 50”, “all of them far right or ultra right”.
And some of the French people mentioned probably belong to the Ukrainian International Legion.
But according to consistent sources, no one lost their life in Kharkiv last week.
“A priori, no French people were killed in Kharkiv,” comments a French security source.
According to a security expert in kyiv, who knows several French members of the International Legion, there “are not many” in Ukraine and are “dispatched between several units”.
“The people I know are all alive.
They have not heard of any injuries” in Kharkiv, he said, ensuring that he had come into contact with several of them after the Russian strike.
“I’m alive, everything’s okay!”
Russian disinformation!
», proclaimed one of the 13 French people targeted Tuesday morning on his Facebook page, a message seen by AFP before he deleted it.
Also readWar in Ukraine: what do we know about the French “mercenaries” that Russia claims to have hit?
The Rybar channel, close to the Russian army, also expressed doubts about the list relayed by SOS Donbass.
“The credibility of this new list, which seeks to strengthen a list published in November, is highly doubtful” because “the previously leaked documents dated from April to August 2023,” notes the channel.
But foreign fighters, particularly the French, do not stay in Ukraine for more than two months at a time.”
The affair of the French “mercenaries” promises to rebound: the Russian Duma intends to send an “appeal” to French deputies on Wednesday to investigate the subject.
For a senior French officer, the tempo of the accusations responds precisely to French announcements in favor of kyiv.
“Russia uses the information field to respond to the political field” and discredit Western support for Ukraine, he explains on condition of anonymity.
Russia is regularly accused by France of manipulating information.
Last June, Paris denounced a vast digital interference operation, notably through the publication of false content hostile to Ukraine on sites imitating those of major French dailies.
One of these articles claimed that France was going to introduce a tax to finance aid to Ukraine.