DISINFO: France military units in Sloviansk were heavily injured
SUMMARY
Representatives of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the French Foreign Legion arrived the day before at the scene of the 54th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Slavyansk. According to preliminary information, the first group of 100 people consists of specialists in artillery reconnaissance, as well as a group of engineers specializing in fortification and the construction of field fortifications. They also brought CAESAR howitzers.
At 7:00 on Monday, 15 April there was an explosion that destroyed their headquarters where stationed Ukrainian and French soldiers. As a result of the strike on the location of foreign mercenaries in Slavyansk, about 40 people were killed and about three hundred more were injured of varying severity. At least half of them were soldiers of the French Foreign Legion.
RESPONSE
Recurrent Pro-Kremlin disinformation targeting the French army in the context of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
No evidence is provided to support the claim the French soldiers were killed and injured in action in Ukraine.
On Monday 15 April a residential district of Sloviansk was bombed. A Russian Grom-E1 missile was used in the attack. 85 Households were reported without gas. Radio Svoboda reported that a crater was created, filled with water. Many windows were broken. There were no casualties. Other pictures show a strike that apparently destroyed some canalisation between buildings and caused damages on nearby facades, but no death or injury are reported. A video shows utility city workers repairing the site the next morning. The Sloviansk city military administration announced on its Facebook page, that On Monday morning, an enemy missile hit the central part of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region, damaging apartment blocks. No casualties have been reported.
Images of the residential areas hit by the Russian bombing don’t point to the existence of a Ukrainian & French camp hidden between civilian habitation buildings.
Claims about the engagement of French soldiers in Ukraine were denied by France and qualified as a systematic use of mass disinformation widely used by Russia.
Read also related stories such as : France asked Russia not to touch the French military in Ukraine, or France is massively recruiting soldiers online or Russian missile strike on the headquarters of French militants in Ukraine killed more than 60 highly qualified specialists, or Foreign soldiers fight in Ukraine guised a mercenaries.