Paris denies knowledge of hundreds of French Mercenaries in Ukraine after 60 died from one Russian missile

 

Anneke de Laaf

Earlier this week the Russians targeted a building with foreign mercenaries in Kharkov. Amongst the dead were many French citizens. 

Paris tried to downplay the French presence, then denied that the Macron regime knew anything about Frenchmen fighting for Kiev. Ritter isn’t buying it, and neither is Moscow. The French ambassador has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign affairs and probably got an earful. He just left the ministry and is most likely reporting back to Paris as we speak. 

The Parisian claims are not plausible in light of Macron’s recent statement that Putin must not be allowed to win (plus the additional aid he promised Kiev). The French aren’t the first to suffer losses in Kiev-territory, earlier Yankee, British and Polish soldiers a.o. were neutralized. 

I hope those killed were mostly professional soldiers and mercenaries who knew what they were in for, rather than young adventurers getting sucked in by NATO propaganda. 

MOSCOW, January 19 - RIA Novosti. Retired US Marine intelligence officer and military analyst Scott Ritter, in an interview with RIA Novosti, called the assumption that the French authorities might not have known about so many of their citizens in the combat zone in Ukraine absurd.

On January 17, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian Armed Forces hit a building with French mercenaries in Kharkov with a high-precision strike, killing over 60 militants.

“It is very unlikely that French citizens in such numbers and such concentration were in Ukraine, fought on the side of the Ukrainian army, and the French government did not know about it. It is also unlikely that such a number of French were in Ukraine without the support of the French government, which means that the authorities condone such actions," Ritter said.

He noted that it remains to be determined who were among the killed French fighters, whether they were “professional soldiers, civilians looking for adventure, or simply mercenaries.” In addition, the military analyst did not rule out that a number of killed Frenchmen could have been associated with the French Foreign Legion and advised the Ukrainian Armed Forces .

“But the very idea that the French authorities knew nothing is absolutely absurd,” Ritter concluded.

In connection with the destruction by the Russian Armed Forces of the location of foreign fighters in Kharkov, the French Ambassador was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that contacts with Paris are conducted through diplomatic channels, and there have been no proposals for a conversation at the highest level.

On January 17, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian Armed Forces, with a high-precision strike, destroyed a temporary deployment point in Kharkov for foreign fighters, most of whom were French mercenaries. The department noted that over 60 militants were killed. The French Foreign Ministry, despite plenty of evidence of the presence of French mercenaries in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, tried to disown compatriots in Ukrainian units, calling the information about the destruction of dozens of French mercenaries in Kharkov “gross manipulation of the Russians.” The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the French Ambassador, and the State Duma of the Russian Federation, according to its speaker Vyacheslav Volodin , at the next meeting will consider an appeal to the French parliament to find out whether the French deputies are aware that someone, violating the norms of the French law prohibiting mercenarism, is sending militants to Ukraine.

In November 2023, the Investigative Committee of Russia reported that more than 520 foreign mercenaries from 44 states became involved in criminal cases, including French citizens being accused in absentia of mercenarism.

In August 2023, Frédéric Mathieu, a member of the French parliament from the left-wing party “Unbowed France,” sent an appeal to the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gerald Darmanin , where he pointed out the security risks associated with the return of militants who fought in Ukraine to their homeland. According to him, among the 400 French people who have left for Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, there are about a hundred militants, most of whom openly identify themselves as part of the far-right movement.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has repeatedly stated that the Kiev regime is using foreign mercenaries as “cannon fodder”, and the Russian military will continue to destroy them throughout Ukraine. Those who came to fight for money themselves admitted in many interviews that the Ukrainian military poorly coordinates their actions, and the chance of surviving the battles is small, since the intensity of the conflict is not comparable with the Afghanistan and the Middle East they are accustomed to .