Russian special military operation in Ukraine #52

Kiko wrote:

A democracy cannot prohibit its civilian citizens from traveling to another country to participate in combat wearing the uniform of that country, Sébastien Lecornu argued

In a democratic country where there is freedom of press such as Russia can't avoid its military combating in a war but to annihilate aggressive NATO forces supporting a Nazi regime.

This faggot won't miss not even one opportunity to strike and offend Russia.

Walther von Oldenburg wrote:I expect a large wave of Geraniums and missiles as a retaliation for the Donetsk strike.

Kiko wrote:Manu is a childless President. His is an unfruitful matrimony.

Paris came up with a ruse to deny the death of French mercenaries in Ukraine, by Valeria Verbinina for VZGLYAD. 01.21.2024.

France categorically denies that French mercenaries are fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This was the official response of Paris to statements by the Russian Ministry of Defense about the extermination of dozens of French citizens in Kharkov. In this denial, however, there is a certain trick and cunning associated with who exactly the French consider to be mercenaries.

In the middle of the week, on January 18, the Ministry of Defense issued a statement that a group of mercenaries, mainly French, had been destroyed in a targeted strike in the city of Kharkov. Moreover, the group was very respectable - about 60 people died and about two dozen were injured of varying degrees of severity. The French Ambassador in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, and information about the incident was published in all French media.

It would seem that French society should be interested in the fate of its compatriots who died in a foreign country. At the very least, ask yourself what they were doing there and whether the game was worth the trouble. But it's not that simple.

Mercenary activity is prohibited in many countries around the world, and France is no exception: there it is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 75 thousand euros.

For the organizers of this type of activity, the numbers are even higher - seven years in prison and a 100 thousand euro fine. Nevertheless, the law has its own subtleties and limitations: the French would not be French if they did not take care to spell out many nuances that, if desired, can be turned to their advantage.

For example, the law on punishment for mercenary activities does not apply to military advisers and technical personnel, as well as to legionnaires involved in the French army. Moreover, the wording of the law is such that it is not difficult to circumvent them. Only “direct participation in hostilities” is prohibited, and even “with weapons in hand” and “for the purpose of receiving monetary reward.”

If someone, for example, undergoes training in order to actually become a mercenary, the law turns a blind eye to this, since there is no direct participation in hostilities with weapons in hand. And in general, maybe a person decided to get additional education out of pure curiosity - what if he someday needs to fight off good neighbors with a grenade launcher where he lives. If the office in which the citizen was recruited is registered on some distant islands (or, say, in the USA), the law will also not necessarily consider him a mercenary. Especially if he subsequently takes care to be listed only as a military expert.

As for the message from the Russian Ministry of Defense, it really caused a great resonance in France, but, so to speak, in a typically French style. For example, the first channel of French television, TF1, reacted in an exemplary manner. The first thing he does is cast doubt on the source of the news: “The information provided should be treated with caution, as it cannot be confirmed in the near future by any independent source.”

And in general, French journalists emphasize, Russia cannot be trusted. Moscow supposedly has its own reasons for inflating French losses in the media field, since France has declared its desire to expand the range of military supplies for Ukraine and is persistently pushing the line that it will support it no matter what happens.

Having questioned the source of the news, a figure is then brought forward to play the role of expert for the public. In this case, it is a certain Xavier Titelman, introduced as a “former military pilot.” He starts right off the bat: the message from the Russian Ministry of Defense allegedly “is an absolute lie,” since the French who are in Ukraine gather in groups not based on citizenship, but in accordance with their military specialties.

And even more than that: allegedly Xavier Titelman personally contacted representatives of these groups - of which, according to him, there are only five (UAV specialists, “elite shooters” and three more groups that the speaker did not want to specify). Everyone seems to be alive and well, no one is killed or even injured.

In a word, everything is fine, the beautiful marquise, and her fellow citizens have nothing to worry about.

Titelman is echoed by Colonel Michel Goya, who often appears on French television and gives newspaper interviews as a military expert. If you believe the colonel’s words , “not a single Frenchman has been killed in recent months,” and in general the statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense is supposedly just part of an information war designed to destabilize the situation in Europe on the eve of the European Parliament elections.

However, the most revealing thing is the immediate reaction of the authorities of the Fifth Republic. The French Foreign Ministry made it clear that there are no mercenaries on the territory of Ukraine, just as there are none in other countries. There are none, and that’s it. Even if there is, as they say, reinforced concrete evidence that the French are fighting on the side of the Ukrainians, there are no traces of any mercenaries. The explanation for this is the very law that presents so many loopholes and so many possibilities of interpretation.

When asked directly about the presence of French mercenaries in Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournet answered with a categorical no. “Our ambassador in Moscow was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on this issue. This is a way to periodically put pressure on European states. This is one of Russia’s gross manipulations to which we are accustomed,” the minister said.

The statement of the French Foreign Ministry may seem strange, to put it mildly, but, from the French point of view, there is nothing strange in it, just as there are no words of untruth. The fact is that a mercenary, as expert Patrick Sos explains , is a person who agrees to fight for anyone in order to receive money for his activities. And the French military legally fight as part of the International Legion on the side of the Ukrainians and do it “not for money.”

Their status, from the point of view of the French authorities, is not that of a mercenary. In other words, no matter how much they are called mercenaries in Russia or anywhere else, in their homeland they are not considered mercenaries.

And if so, the French Foreign Ministry feels within its right to answer that no mercenaries died, because for the French authorities, French citizens fighting in Ukraine are not mercenaries. There are no mercenaries there, period. Well, yes, there are five groups of some kind, including UAV specialists, but none of them were even injured. And in general, these are not mercenaries, they are not for money. Because the French state knows better who is for money and who is pure unmercenary. Especially the latter include drone specialists and “elite shooters.”

As a matter of fact, this is precisely what was confirmed by French Defense Minister Sebastian Lecornu. “There are French civilians who went to fight in Ukrainian uniforms. But we, as a democratic country, cannot ban them,” said the French Minister of Defense. According to him , such a ban is impossible, since these French citizens are not career military personnel and have no connection with French military structures.

Yes, it was Kozma Prutkov who once came up with the immortal “if you read the inscription “buffalo” on an elephant’s cage, don’t believe your eyes.” In France, if “buffalo” is written on an elephant’s cage, they will think that this means it’s necessary. And no matter how much you try to prove that it is an elephant and that the inscription is not substantive, they will not listen to you. This is their cage, their elephant and their classification. And if they classified the elephant as a buffalo, so be it.

https://vz.ru/world/2024/1/21/1249510.html

Karl Haushofer wrote:Donetsk came under shelling again this morning. An apartment building and a market place were destroyed. There are “many dead” per Russian sources.

One would have thought that after two years of the SMO Donetsk would not have to endure the daily shelling it has been subjected to sinne 2014. But no.

lyle6 wrote:If I was planning on making a case for wiping out all of Russia's enemies once and for all with unholy nuclear fire and **** the collateral damage - this is how I will do it. Just saying.

sepheronx wrote:Ukraine yet again attacked a market in Donetsk killing about 25 people.

I'm wondering, those who are documenting everything, has anyone documented a full list, including index with photos/videos, of said atrocities for future use?

VARGR198 wrote:

https://twitter.com/LogKa11/status/1749133510915334485

sepheronx wrote:Ukraine yet again attacked a market in Donetsk killing about 25 people.

I'm wondering, those who are documenting everything, has anyone documented a full list, including index with photos/videos, of said atrocities for future use?