​​France 24 removes scandalous report about Russian occupation forces

The report titled “War in Ukraine: Russian troops prepare for battle before counteroffensive” is no longer available on the website of the French state TV channel France 24 and the France 24 YouTube channel. The authors removed the scandalous report after the reaction of the Ukrainian ambassador to France and public outcry. Nevertheless, Novynarnya publication journalists managed to save the scandalous video before it was removed. 

Last week, the French TV channel published an English-language story in which a France 24 crew visited a camp where Russian occupation forces were training; the crew  referred to the Ukrainian counteroffensive as “hostile.”

“My grandfather fought, and I have to defend the history of my country with dignity,” – the protagonist of the story, a Russian soldier proud to be at war, tells French journalists. The Russian military is not afraid of a counteroffensive and boasts that its weapons are better than Western ones, including Leopard tanks. 

This is the reaction of the Ambassador of Ukraine to France Vadym Omelchenko to the article with obvious signs of Russian propaganda.

“A bad example of the so-called ‘neutral journalism’: a report by France 24 from the perspective of the occupiers, who are learning to kill Ukrainians (and preparing for the next Bucha). One can hardly imagine such a report from the Nazi positions in Normandy on the eve of D-Day. Am I wrong? Is this normal?” the Ukrainian ambassador wrote on Twitter.