The Quai d’Orsay denounced on Monday a “disinformation campaign”, while international media relayed the assertion that French soldiers are on Ukrainian soil.
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No, France did not send troops to Ukrainian soil. Paris denounced, Monday May 7, on account from his Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a new “disinformation campaign” on the deployment of French soldiers in Ukraine. The Quai d’Orsay also shows two posts claiming that a Foreign Legion unit commanded by a Frenchman had been sent to fight alongside kyiv.
The Asia Times site indeed maintained on Saturday that Paris had deployed men “in support of the 54th independent Ukrainian mechanized brigade in Slavyansk”coming from “3rd Infantry Regiment” of the Legion. He adds that one hundred men, specialists in “artillery and surveillance”, had already left out of a planned total of 1,500 soldiers. This article, which does not cite any source, has been republished numerous times on different social networks and in different languages, notably in English and French. It has also been used by established media such as the Indian site Hindustan Times.
Frequent disinformation campaigns
In February, Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out the idea of sending Western troops to Ukraine, sparking a wave of publications on the internet mixing exaggerations, approximations and fake news. In an interview with the weekly The Economistthe French president again assumed this position on Thursday. “If the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there was a Ukrainian request, which is not the case today, we should legitimately ask ourselves the question.” Vladimir Putin, for his part, ordered Monday the upcoming holding of nuclear exercises in response to comments from Western leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, according to the Kremlin.
This is not the first time that Paris has denied a disinformation campaign of this type. In March, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces denounced a fake website using its official logo and inviting 200,000 French people to “get involved in Ukraine”, operation attributed by several sources to Russian or pro-Russian interests.
At the beginning of February, Viginum, the French organization fighting against foreign digital interference, also revealed the existence ofa coordinated network of 193 sites, “Portal Kombat”responsible for spreading Russian propaganda in Europe and the United States.