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 .

Canada's Dreadful Performance in Kabul Reveals the Pathetic Character of This Government

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Kevin Newman: Kabul shows the unflattering truth:

Canada is slow, risk-averse and selfish

While French commandos in buses got their people out, we sent texts (in English)

telling our friends to head to the airport on their own

By: Kevin Newman

It was a brazen move the first time, but twice?

Ten buses screamed out of France’s embassy in Kabul early this week, past every Taliban checkpoint along the way, and according to eyewitnesses, zipped confidently through a back-entrance gate and straight onto the chaotic tarmac at Hamid Karzai International Airport. Five hundred exhausted and terrified passengers were then loaded onto a French military aircraft which quickly took off. 

And then it happened again on Thursday, four buses this time, under the guard of French special forces. As with the first convoy, Paris newspapers reported the buses carried French nationals stranded in Kabul, and hundreds of Afghans and their families the French embassy had given shelter to since before the Taliban roared into and re-occupied the city. Two ballsy airlifts took them to safety at a French military base in the United Arab Emirates, where hundreds of desperate people were given a hot meal, questioned about their identities and had their documents confirmed. Most were then sent on to Paris, where they received physical and mental-health support as well as cash, clothing, and places to stay as they begin their new lives.

On those same days in Kabul, another country tried to rescue its citizens and hundreds of Afghan interpreters and their families hiding throughout the city. I’ve pieced together what happened to them from texts and video Canadian veterans have been receiving every hour from people they know in Kabul, and I am sharing them with permission. I have verified each of these facts (from the peace of Canada) with multiple sources on the ground. 

Kevin Newman

There were no buses, soldiers or escorts for these terrified people. Thursday they received a short text from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). They were instructed (in English only) to urgently head to the airport on their own, try to find a way through multiple Taliban checkpoints searching for them, and then if they survived that kilometres-long trip, figure out a way through thousands of desperate Afghans trying to flee. 

They were told by IRCC to carry documents to identify themselves to a gate agent, but because those same documents would be used to identify them by the Taliban, it was up to them to decide whether to carry them. With that, IRCC wiped its hands of responsibility. No direction on where to avoid Taliban checkpoints, no specific gates to head to (there are eight), and no Canadians on site to help. In fact there hadn’t been any Canadian officials in Kabul for a week, and when a few arrived hours after that text blast, reporters said they had travelled on an American military flight because their Canadian C-17 needed servicing somewhere else. 

Needless to say, no one got through the airport, so they returned to their safe houses — wondering if their last flight to freedom had left without them. 

It hadn’t. It never existed. Later that night another set of blasts went out again telling Afghans to move on their own to the airport. This time they were told to shout “Canada”  and hope a soldier would hear them and help them through the airport gates. Taliban guards could hear them as well there, which would ensure that the target on their backs they had been trying to hide came completely into focus. 

Two countries, two very different experiences for terrified Afghans, both on the same day. We’ll never know if some of those brave and desperate people didn’t make it through alive with all that futile moving back and forth to the airport in a city surrounded by Taliban. All we know for certain is none of more than one thousand people on the Canadian veterans’ list made it to freedom on Thursday, as France’s evacuees whisked past.

That very same day, Justin Trudeau blamed the Taliban for making it impossible to do better. “Unless the Taliban shift their posture significantly — which is something the international community and Canada are working on — it's going to be very difficult to get many people out,” the Liberal leader said.

But how did France do it? Well, it likely helped that they still had diplomats and military advisors in Kabul to negotiate (maybe bribe?) the Taliban to provide safe passage for their hundreds of refugees. All of our allies had eyes and boots on the ground this week at Kabul’s airport. Canada did not. It closed its embassy and withdrew all its diplomats and military by jet to Ottawa just as the Taliban was rolling into town. The government left no one behind to talk to the Taliban, or our allies, as they organized and negotiated the rescue of thousands. 

Which left the handful of Canadian soldiers who finally returned late Thursday with little if any advance work to rely on. They started from scratch. Their only options were to ask for a lot of very large favours from the thousands of American and British soldiers who had been busy all week rescuing thousands of their own nationals and Afghans. Alliances are meant to share burdens. Canada, in Kabul this week, was only a taker.

We had already given up on about a thousand Afghans in Kandahar who had been allies during our military mission and were in various stages of completing the onerous and complex immigration paperwork for Canada. Those who escaped to Kabul for rescue tried to blend in, 800 of them in safe houses organized by Canadian veterans and funded with donations from concerned Canadians. Public appeals from retired generals and many other ex-soldiers to provide valuable intel they were receiving were largely dismissed, so as a country we had no situational awareness of our own to develop a plan, and rejected the only source of it — from Afghans we trained and veterans who still live and work there. We asked other countries to give us their homework instead.

These early days of this massive rescue effort by Western countries revealed some unflattering aspects of our national character. Canada has been slow to react, risk-averse and selfish. We’ve relied on our neighbours more than each other, turned our backs on thousands who’d proved their loyalty to us, and even blamed criminals for our inability to protect people we know are in real fear of being murdered. Our leaders have declared they wished they could have done more, but gosh, the Taliban won’t let us. Trudeau then batted aside suggestions the IRCC paperwork with its requirement for passport, biometric fingerprints and digital photographs had delayed everything. By Friday afternoon that nonsense was finally dropped. The airport chaos and confusion at the gates grew more alarming.

It was always going to be difficult to leave Afghanistan, but most other countries were a lot more successful at saving thousands of desperate people this week. Canada’s specific evacuation list from Kabul isn’t being revealed by the government, but veterans tracking it say as of Friday afternoon said those who defied the odds and made it onto a flight — any flight — could be counted on two hands. There are still days to try something else and hopefully better. But not many.

Kevin Newman is a retired journalist who reported from Afghanistan. He has been helping the veteran volunteer network trying to save their interpreters and families.

Nearly 80 Children Kidnapped in Cameroon’s English-Speaking Separatist Region

Always the children paying the price for man's madness

Anti-government protesters in Bamenda © Reuters

Dozens of people, most of them children, have been kidnapped from a school in the city of Bamenda in Cameroon’s northwestern Anglophone region, which is struggling with a separatist insurgency.

Armed men kidnapped 78 students from a Presbyterian school in the Nkwen village, Northwest Region Governor Deben Tchoffo said.

A video uploaded to social media showed the kidnapped children and the alleged kidnappers, calling themselves “Amba boys” in reference to the breakaway Ambazonia state that the separatists have been trying to create. The footage could not be immediately verified, but parents have reportedly been reacting to images of their children on social media, according to AP.

Earlier, a military source told Reuters that the school principal has been kidnapped along with the students.

“In total, 81 people were kidnapped including the principal. They were taken to the bush,” the source said.

The separatists, who are protesting against President Paul Biya’s French-speaking government, have imposed strict curfews, shuttered schools, and killed government soldiers and policemen in guerilla raids.

The conflict between the insurgents and government security forces intensified last year after a government crackdown on peaceful protesters. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people, with many fleeing Bamenda for the calmer Francophone regions.

In July, a video showing government soldiers shooting women and children sparked outrage and accusations that the Cameroon government – a close ally of the US in Africa – was carrying out arbitrary executions of anyone believed to be supporting the Boko Haram terrorist group.

In an October presidential election, opposition candidate Maurice Kamto declared victory against Biya, who has ruled since 1982, but Biya’s ruling party dismissed claims of defeat and accused Kamto of breaking the law. Reuters reported that the opposing candidate did not provide evidence to back up claims that he won.

A government spokesperson said it was keeping track of developments surrounding the kidnapping, but provided no other details.

Cameroon is about 70% Christian and about 18% Muslim with a number of people practicing traditional religions. Cameroon has Nigeria on one side, Central African Republic and Congo on the other side, all of which are war-torn countries.

France Offers Evidence Syria was Behind Nerve Gas Attack

Can Assad really be that stupid?

American and UK intelligence have proven themselves unreliable to me. So my first reaction is to take anything that comes out of either outfit with a large grain of salt.

That Assad would risk alienating Trump just days after Trump announced that Assad would not have to go to get a settlement in Syria is unconscionably stupid. Is Assad that stupid? The French think so. They may be right, or not. I'm not fully convinced yet, but getting closer.

Chemical analysis indicates the nerve gas used in the April 4 attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun was identical to that used previously by the Syrian military.

By Ed Adamczyk  

The French government announced Wednesday it has proof Syria was responsible for a 

nerve gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, in which at least 87 people died. 

Photo by Mohammed Badra/EPA

UPI  -- The French government has proof indicating the Syrian air force dropped bombs containing the nerve gas Sarin on a civilian population, it said Wednesday.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said samples taken from the April 4 attack on rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun bear the same chemical signature of Sarin made by the Syrian government, and match samples from a prior chemical attack.

"We have definite sources that the procedure used to make the Sarin sampled is typical of the methods developed in Syrian laboratories. This method bears the signature of the regime, and that is what has allowed us to establish its responsibility in this attack."

The report by France's intelligence agency, declassified Wednesday, concludes that the Sarin was manufactured by the Syrian government. It said the Sarin found in Khan Sheikhoun was produced in the same process as Sarin found in an unexploded grenade dropped by a Syrian government helicopter in 2013.

At least 87 people died, and hundreds more exhibited symptoms of a reaction to a nerve agent, in the attack. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dismissed the incident as a fabrication. Last week the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons also announced it has "incontrovertible" evidence that Syria conducted the attack.

"Neither do the French services assess that the theory of a staged attack or manipulation by the opposition is credible, particularly because of the massive influx in a very limited time towards hospitals in Syria and Turkey, and the simultaneous, massive uploading of videos showing symptoms of the use of neurotoxic agents," the report said.