“From what the Russians say, I’ve already died twice,” Frank, a man with a generous beard and a sarcastic smile, told AFP. “Fortunately, they weren’t very serious deaths because I lived after that.” – joked a fighter of the Ukrainian International Legion in an interview with France Presse.

A handsome 50-year-old boy agreed to tell his story on Skype, from the front line, but preferred not to give his last name

He is one of the alleged French “mercenaries” killed, according to Moscow, during a strike on the night of January 16-17 in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that during a large-scale communications operation, it “eliminated” about sixty fighters, “mostly French citizens”, and wounded another 20 fighters.

For its part, France “identified a coordinated maneuver by Russia” to spread false information about the involvement of Paris at a time when the latter is increasing its support for Ukraine.

Several lists, including one purported to reveal the identities of around thirty “dead French mercenaries”, were widely circulated on Telegram channels and by pro-Kremlin activists.

The story of Frank, a French volunteer on the Ukrainian front

They remember Franko, who was already declared dead by the Russian mass media in the fall of 2022.

“I lost my Go-pro camera in a ditch in (southern) Zaporozhye region,” he says. “They used my images mixed with some corpses to say my whole group was dead.”

AFP was also able to locate and interview two other Frenchmen from those lists. All three condemn “false propaganda” aimed at “discrediting” their participation as volunteers in the Ukrainian armed forces.

These former French soldiers, none of whom were in Kharkiv at the time of the attack, categorically reject the “mercenary” label.

The list includes volunteers who have long since returned to France

Beranger Minault, who gave statements under his real name and was interviewed by AFP on January 25 in Aix-les-Bains, at the foot of the French Alps, says he left Ukraine in September 2023 after being wounded in combat.

“For me, it is absolutely impossible that 50 French fighters are in one place and at the same time in Ukraine,” says the 45-year-old former courier driver, who first took part in humanitarian action before taking up arms in “stop the mass killings” of the civilian population.

“It’s hard for me to believe that there are more than 50 of us now. And the ones I know are all scattered everywhere,” says this slim, beaked man, showing his French passport and Ukrainian military record.

French security forces estimate the number of French volunteers in Ukraine to be around a hundred.

“There are other guys on this list that I know who were in Ukraine in the past but returned to France some time ago,” added the man, known only as Sly, aged 43.

Contacted via WhatsApp, he says that he is currently fighting “in the south of Ukraine.”

According to Frank, who contacted people in Kharkiv (Donbas), where he works as a “sniper”, “the bombing this night did not hit military buildings, but civilian infrastructure, 19 civilians were injured, but that’s all.”

The figure is close to that provided by local authorities, who reported 17 civilians wounded on January 17.

The Russians put “Air Jordan” on the list of the dead

French diplomatic and military sources say some of the identifications presented are also fake, with one claiming that certain lists “created by Chat GPT” contained fictitious names.

For example, Air Jordan, born in 1986, was allegedly killed by the Russians.

“Using verified information about the stay of French citizens in Ukraine, (…) they are mixing truth with forgery,” the AFP source said.

Xavier Titelman, a consultant and editor-in-chief of Air et Cosmos magazine, who is in constant contact with French members of the Ukrainian International Legion, claims that he contacted a dozen of those listed, “all of them very much alive. ”

France does not deny the presence of some of its citizens in the ranks of the Ukrainian army, but rejects Russia’s insinuation of involvement in their recruitment.

The word “mercenary” chosen by Moscow is not devoid of meaning. Prohibited by French law, mercenary – an act related to fighting abroad for pay – is punishable by 5 years in prison. The term is also used by France to condemn the activities of Russia’s Wagner Militia, which for years has been accused by Paris of robberies and war crimes in Africa.