DISINFO: French troops are on Ukraine frontlines, many already dead
SUMMARY
One hundred engineers from the French Foreign Legion have joined Ukrainian troops in the town of Slovyansk (Donetsk Oblast). Some of the French have been killed, like another 60 French troops who had been killed in Kharkiv earlier. This is supposedly the first group of a total of 1,500 French troops who will soon arrive in Ukraine.
The presence of French mercenaries on Ukrainian soil is undeniable and no secret for the Russian military command. The very decision to deploy French soldiers in Slovyansk is very provocative. It contradicts French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement that if French troops are to be sent to Ukraine, they will replace Ukrainians in the West of the country so that Ukrainian troops can be transferred to the frontline in the East. Since Slovyansk is located directly on the frontline, the presence of French troops there turns into a direct war with the Russian Federation.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative about alleged foreign mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
There is no evidence that the French Foreign Legion soldiers or any other regular troops from NATO countries are fighting in Ukraine. The French Ministry of Defence has denied these false claims. Kharkiv police chief Volodymyr Tymoshko said there were no mercenaries at the hotel which was hit by a Russian missile on 10 January 2024: ‘Servicemen never stayed in this hotel and just about everyone in Kharkiv knows this. It was used by journalists.’ French authorities said: 'France has no “mercenaries” either in Ukraine or anywhere else, unlike some people,' and labelled the assertion as 'another clumsy Russian manipulation.'
A broad coalition of 50-plus countries including NATO member states support Ukraine with military and technical assistance, but Alliance troops do not fight on the frontline. NATO officials have frequent contacts with their Ukrainian counterparts, but there are no NATO troops on the frontline.
Lastly, any foreigners who serve in Ukraine's International Legion, are legal servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine rather than mercenaries. Foreign volunteers, who officially joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in accordance with the 1977 protocol to the Geneva Conventions (Part I, Article 1), fight against the Russian occupiers in Ukraine legally, as they are a part of the structure of subordination to Ukrainian government agencies.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that France military units in Sloviansk were heavily injured, that Foreign soldiers fight in Ukraine guised a mercenaries, that The largest number of mercenaries in Ukraine comes from Poland.