The Russian ambassador to France “will be summoned” to the French Foreign Ministry on February 5, following the deaths of two French aid workers in Ukraine last week. Tensions are mounting between Paris and Moscow, with Russia recently denouncing France’s “growing involvement” in Ukraine.
Tensions have been running high between Moscow and Paris for several weeks now. AFP has learned from diplomatic sources that the Russian ambassador to France, Alexei Mechkov, has been summoned to the Quai d’Orsay on February 5.
France condemns the drone strike that killed two French aid workers in Ukraine on February 1. The two French victims perished in a strike on Beryslav, a small Ukrainian town on the north bank of the Dnieper River near the front line, the French Foreign Ministry said on Friday, adding that three other French nationals had been injured.
Paris “will also denounce the resurgence of disinformation targeting France”, the same source added, a few days after the Ministry of the Armed Forces identified a “coordinated Russian maneuver” to spread false information implicating France.
Scalp missile deliveries, “mercenaries” in Ukraine: Moscow castigates France’s role
Moscow, for its part, blasted “France’s growing involvement” after Emmanuel Macron announced new arms deliveries to Kiev on January 16. Russia also announced on January 18 that it had carried out a precision strike in Kharkov on a deployment center for foreign mercenaries, including soldiers “whose core was made up of French mercenaries”.
The Quai d’Orsay denied the existence of French “mercenaries” in Ukraine, but the French Defense Minister admitted the existence of French fighters, declaring on LCI on January 19: “We don’t have to forbid them, we’re still a democracy.”
The French ambassador in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry in the aftermath, and the Duma sent an appeal to the National Assembly denouncing the presence of French “mercenaries” on January 24.
Source of the news: https://francais.rt.com
