In Ukraine, a Russian drone attack on the city of Odessa injured nine people on Tuesday, April 23, including four children, according to the regional governor. This city of Odessa is regularly targeted by bombings by the Russian army but also by disinformation. In recent days, some have wrongly claimed that French soldiers have been deployed in the port city overlooking the Black Sea. False information spread using a video taken out of context.
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A convoy of three trucks transporting military equipment filmed on a country road by a civilian in his vehicle: these images, seen hundreds of thousands of times in a few days on social networks, are presented as proof of the arrival ” at least 1,000 French soldiers in Odessa “. “ Reports of American troops from the 101ste airborne division and French troops numbering 1,000, operating openly in Odessa. They crossed Romania », Comments a user. Another states “ at least 1,000 French soldiers arrived in the port of Odessa aboard a civilian ship. These French people, according to the source, were welcomed and accompanied by NATO officers. It is also reported that another transfer of French military personnel to Ukraine is planned in the near future “.
Be careful, this video is fake.
In reality, this video, undated and not geolocated, in no way proves the presence of French soldiers in Odessa.
Soviet equipment
The RFI Verification Info cell identified the vehicles visible in these images. The first flatbed truck corresponds to the truck from the Russian brand Kamaz. Concerning the remaining two, one is from the Italian brand Iveco and the other from the German Mercedes.
On the semi-trailers, there are two radar vehicles, with the NATO code “ Straight Flush », used in the SA-6 anti-aircraft system, also produced by Russia, as well as a ZIL 131 military truck, manufactured in the Soviet Union between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 2000s. These vehicles appear in the arsenal of the Russian army and the Ukrainian army, but not of the French army. This video therefore does not show the presence of French soldiers and equipment in Ukraine.
Russian propaganda in action
The fake news first appeared online on Russian-speaking Telegram channels before finding its way onto prominent social networks like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and TikTok.
It was also broadcast by the pravda-fr website. This site has been identified by Viginum, the French service for protection against foreign digital interference, as one of the actors of the Portal Kombat network : a structured disinformation network made up of more than a hundred websites used to disseminate and amplify pro-Russian propaganda online.
This false information implicitly refers to Emmanuel Macron’s comments last March on a potential sending of men to Odessa. But in reality, this declaration did not materialize, hence the use of images taken out of context. This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has falsely claimed that French soldiers are fighting in Ukraine. This narrative is firmly denied by the Élysée. Not only do those who circulate it provide no tangible proof, but also, a convoy of such magnitude could not go unnoticed.