It’s a sequence that lasts barely thirty seconds, but which has already been viewed nearly 3 million times. On June 3, a user of, followed by nearly 47,000 people, publishes “an exclusive video of the capture of a French soldier by Russians in the region of the village of Lyptsi”. In the images, a Russian soldier fires several warning shots towards a trench from which a man crawls out. To the orders of the Russian soldier who told him to surrender, the latter responded, in a very coarse accent: “Come and get me! Don’t shoot! I’m French.”
The next day, the Russian embassy in South Africa in turn shared the video, and specified in the description that “the Russian army captured a French mercenary”. Problem: the camouflage and combat vest worn by the man have nothing to do with those that French soldiers are usually equipped with, and the French flag patch is not official.
To the point that, on June 6, the French embassy in Pretoria reacted on a response tinged with irony : “Dear colleagues, you have been spreading fake news for some time and we are now used to this undiplomatic practice. But this one is particularly ridiculous. We suggest that your actors work on their accent by taking French lessons at the ‘French alliance.”
A series of destabilizing actions
This ludicrous video is part of a series of destabilizing actions hostile to France, while President Emmanuel Macron has announced that he is considering sending French military instructors to Ukraine, to accelerate the training of soldiers. Ukrainians. On June 4, five coffins covered with tricolor flags accompanied by the words “French soldiers from Ukraine” were, for example, discovered at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
The three individuals behind the maneuver, of Bulgarian, Ukrainian and German nationality, have since been taken into police custody, but they are likely to have something to do with the red hands sprayed on the Holocaust memorial on the night of May 13 to 14.
On June 3, a 26-year-old Russian-Ukrainian suspected of wanting to commit an attack was also arrested at Orly airport. The threat of pro-Russian attacks was anticipated by several European intelligence services, revealed on May 5 Financial Times. According to the British daily, the services of four countries have in fact recently alerted their respective governments of the risk of “imminent” acts of sabotage. piloted by Russia, Who would intensify its efforts to carry out bombings, arsons and damage infrastructure in several European countries.