From Donbass Insider
22 November 2021

n a video published on TikTok, showing them violating the ceasefire in the Donbass, Ukrainian soldiers accidentally reveal that they have French weapons in their possession. The presence of these weapons is all the more disturbing as France is the guarantor of the Minsk agreements, and therefore of the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The analysis of the numerous videos published on TikTok by Ukrainian soldiers stationed in the Donbass, showing them firing, not only confirms that they are violating the ceasefire, but also sometimes reveals even more interesting information.

For example, on 20 November 2021, a video showing Ukrainian soldiers firing machine guns and then rocket launchers was posted on Tiktok [A]

The soldiers in the video are soldiers of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Army [1], as shown by the chevron on the guy on the right, firing a rocket launcher.

At first sight the video may seem quite banal, the guys are filming themselves shooting against a background of pro-Ukrainian songs. The keywords associated with the video show that the account that published it belongs to a Ukrainian neo-Nazi, since next to the famous “Glory to Ukraine” we can read “Bandera our father”. When one attributes a Nazi collaborator as one’s spiritual father, there is little doubt about the ideology of the person who did it. The keywords also indicate that the video was filmed in the area of the Joint Forces Operation, i.e. in the Donbass.

No, where it gets really interesting is when you look at the details of the video more closely. Indeed, at 3 seconds and then at 6 seconds we clearly see on the left side of the picture a rocket launcher that does not look like the RPG, nor the Javelin, that Ukraine now boasts of having used for the first time in the Donbass [2]. No, the rocket launcher visible between the two Ukrainian soldiers in the picture is none other than an APILAS [3]: a French anti-tank rocket launcher!

Clearly, this video shows that the Ukrainian soldiers stationed in the Donbass have French weapons at their disposal! The question that immediately arises is how they obtained them.

Either the Ukrainian soldiers stationed in the Donbass were able to obtain these French weapons from jihadists coming from Syria [4](and there too the question arises as to how they were able to obtain them) via the links between Ukrainian neo-Nazis and Islamist terrorists, or France secretly sold these weapons to Ukraine, in complete violation of its role as guarantor of the Minsk agreements.

For France cannot be both a guarantor of agreements allowing for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, and at the same time provide Ukrainian soldiers with French weapons, which only aggravate the escalation in the Donbass.

However, in March, 2021, the LPR People’s Militia announced that France had reached an agreement with Ukraine to supply 60 APILAS rocket launchers to be deployed in the Donbass [5], after Ukrainian soldiers had tested the weapon for two months.

It seems that France secretly sold these weapons to Ukraine, in order to help Ukrainian soldiers continue their killing game in the Donbass, while publicly claiming to want the conflict to be resolved peacefully by implementing the Minsk agreements. This is perhaps the famous “at the same time” that Emmanuel Macron has been applying since the beginning of his presidency.

Christelle Néant

[A] tiktok[dot]com/@vov4ik.myrjak/video/7032325778884791557

[1] en.wikipedia[dot]org/wiki/128th_Mountain_Assault_Brigade_(Ukraine)

[2] gordonua[dot]com/news/war/glava-gur-minoborony-ukrainy-zayavil-chto-ukrainskie-voennye-primenyali-javelin-na-donbasse-smi-1582516.html

[3] en.wikipedia[dot]org/wiki/APILAS

[4] armamentresearch[dot]com/french-apilas-anti-tank-weapon-in-syria/

[5] lug-info[dot]com/news/kiev-postavit-iz-frantsii-granatomety-dlya-diversii-vsu-v-zone-oos-narodnaya-militsiya-65319