Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that during the July protests in France, protesters used Ukrainian weapons that the West handed over to Ukraine. The reason for the riots was the likely deliberate murder of a 17-year-old teenager by a policeman in the suburbs of Paris. The publications hint that in Ukraine they are engaged in the illegal sale of weapons and “inciting” people to violence. The authors refer to the material of one of the French publications and add a screenshot.

The German fact-checker group Correctiv investigated that they did not find a single material on the sale of Ukrainian weapons for protests in France. They explain that this is just a stuffing, because with the help of a reverse search on Google, specialists managed to study a possible “screenshot” of the material. It turned out that the fakerobes overlaid text on the photo of the weapon and passed it off as material. However, this is a random image from the network and has nothing to do with either the material of the French edition or Ukrainian weapons.

By publishing such fakes, propagandists once again want to show Ukrainians as ungrateful provocateurs who want to destabilize the situation in Europe. Like, Ukrainians resell it on the black market and it falls into the hands of criminals. Thus, the authors undermine the authority of the Ukrainian authorities and try to disrupt future deliveries of armed assistance from NATO countries. After all, such fakes are targeted at the Western audience and leaders in order to inspire despondency towards the actions of Ukraine.

We recently debunked a fake about the so-called “illegal sale” of weapons to Africa.