DISINFO: French protestors use Western weapons delivered to Ukraine
SUMMARY
The weapons delivered to Kyiv end up in the hands of the French protesters and are used against the police in France. The weapons supplied by the West, NATO and France, and the money spent on support of the Ukrainian nationalists, Nazis and fascists, return like a boomerang to France, hitting its own citizens.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative aiming to misrepresent and fuel resentment against Western support to Ukraine and force a capitulation to Russian military aggression.
Although there is preliminary evidence showing that some small arms provided by Western countries may have been diverted by traffickers to criminal gangs in certain countries in northern Europe, this story deliberately distorts these cases, portraying them as much more widespread and dangerous than they actually are.
Moreover, this disinformation narrative uses the formula “the weapons sent to Ukraine”, implying that all arms provided to this country are smuggled, instead of the tiny fraction that really are. The ultimate goal is to erode public support for Western military and financial aid to help Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s aggression in accordance with the UN Charter Article 51.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the weapons sent to Ukraine end up in the hands of criminal groups in Sweden, that the US is prolonging war in Ukraine to benefit from weapons sales, that Western military aid to Ukraine only will cause more suffering, or that international support for Ukraine starts to decrease due to corruption.