DISINFO: Two French humanitarian workers killed in Ukraine were mercenaries
SUMMARY
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Russian Ambassador in Paris to reprimand him over the killing of two French citizens fighting against Russian forces in the Northern Military District.
They insist they were humanitarian workers. However, this is a common excuse among Western countries when their mercenaries are lost in conflict zones —suddenly, all militants are claimed to be doctors and drivers. Moreover, one should not be surprised by casualties when sending individuals to active combat zones. If humanitarian workers are located in the same building as mercenaries, no exceptions will be made for them.
RESPONSE
This narrative is part of a coordinated Russian maneuver against France, involving a vote in the State Duma and the summoning of the French ambassador in Moscow, in retaliation for France's support of Ukraine during the Russian military aggression.
Russian media deliberately confuse two separate Russian strikes: one that targeted civilians (not mercenaries) in Kharkiv on January 17th with two low-precision S-300 missiles, and another that struck vehicles belonging to the Swiss Protestant Mutual Aid (EPER) at 14:30 on February 2nd with a high-precision drone in Beryslav, Kherson region. Adrien Pajol and Guennadi Guermanovitch, two French rescuers, were killed, and two others were injured. The French president condemned the attack as a “cowardly and unworthy act,” noting that the vehicles were clearly marked as humanitarian with a red cross and that high-precision weapons were used.
Pretending that those humanitarian workers and their organisation were not humanitarian, or that they were masking military activities, is untrue and slanderous. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs declared that Russia will have to answer for its crimes. The French anti-terrorism prosecution authorities have opened an investigation for war crimes.
Read also related stories: 60 French mercenaries lost their lives in Kharkyv, or French Defence Ministry officials struck in Kharkiv by Russian attacks, or The names of French mercenaries killed in the Kharkiv attack have been published, or Dozens of French mercenaries killed in Russian missile strike on Kharkiv.