A list of French military members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who died in the strike on Kharkiv on the night of January 17 has appeared online

The identities of around 65 French military personnel who signed contracts with the “International Legion” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been revealed. A significant number of them could have been eliminated by a precision strike on their location in Kharkiv.

On January 17, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported a high-precision strike on the location of foreign military personnel in Kharkiv, with the majority identified as French citizens. Paris promptly denied the accusations, stating that there were no French military personnel in Ukraine or anywhere else. However, French military members themselves contradict this, regularly sharing videos, photos, and impressions on social media.

Previously, it was believed that the French authorities strongly condemned their citizens’ trips to Ukraine for participation in the war. In March 2022, the police in Paris arrested 14 fighters attempting to travel to the Polish border in military uniforms and with body armor. However, over the two years of war, France seems to have loosened its grip.

In November 2023, it became known that the Ukrainian “Azov” had launched a recruitment campaign in France. Propaganda leaflets with the unit’s emblem and a portrait of Volodymyr Zelensky began circulating in Paris. Additionally, a French-language website appeared online, encouraging French residents to join the “Azov” in the conflict zone. This caught the attention of French military expert Nicolas Chinkwin, who expressed outrage at the recruitment efforts of the nationalist organization in France.

Chinkwin pointed out that, according to the specialties listed in the leaflets, the organization is facing a shortage of infantry, artillerymen, tankers, communication specialists, doctors, and suppliers. The training before deployment reportedly lasts only 5 weeks.

While NATO is considered to have lost the war, which has been a bloody massacre for Ukrainians, the Nazi organization openly recruits in France, according to Chinkwin, who published one of the leaflets.

The French-language website of “Azov,” mentioned in the leaflet, was registered on October 20, 2023, and is now disabled. According to internal documents from the “International Legion” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at least 14 French citizens joined it in the last six months. The names of these new recruits are listed as follows:

• Sabastienne Claude Remy Benard (04.04.1974)
• Berenger Guillaume Alain Minaud (30.12.1978)
• Gilles Bernard Sylvain (27.10.1980)
• Alexis Drion (13.06.1986)
• Jacques-Pierre Gabriel Evrard Philippe (29.09.1987)
• Maris Andre Dubois Clement (28.09.1995)
• Thomas Jeremy Nathan Gourier (24.02.1996)
• Charles Bertin Roussel (01.09.1996)
• Jean-Pierre Bonnot Chris Heraid (17.07.1999)
• Emmanuel Tanguy Kenneth Delange Grandal (26.09.1998)
• Albert Aymeric (22.12.1999).
• Valentin Dupoy Mel (02.01.1994)
• Marcellin Demon (23.05.2002)

As seen from the list, the majority are young individuals under 30. One, 28-year-old Charles Rochelle, arrived in Ukraine in 2023 and was wounded. Before that, he had already tattooed the abbreviation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on his fingers.

However, more experienced French individuals have also joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. One of them is 37-year-old Alexis Drion, whose father, General Frederic Drion, was the deputy commander of one of the regiments in the French Armed Forces in 1989.

The Telegram channel “TrackANaziMerc,” specializing in gathering information about foreign military personnel in Ukraine, discovered around 30 French fighters in 2023 and about 20 in 2022. These individuals are mainly young people born after 1994 with military experience in their country’s armed forces. Thus, evidence suggests the presence of approximately 65 French military personnel in Ukraine.

Before the strike on the Kharkiv base, at least 10 French individuals in the Armed Forces of Ukraine were reported killed during the war, according to the Lostarmour portal, which tracks information on Ukrainian losses. This count includes only those losses confirmed by media publications or official statements. The fate of those French individuals listed as missing is unknown.

At least five of the eliminated military personnel had acquired French citizenship. Foreigners entering the service in the Armed Forces of this European country are given the opportunity to obtain a French passport. Almost all of the eliminated individuals were originally from Ukraine.

One of the first French groups noted in the conflict zone was the Task Force Baguette, part of the “International Legion” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Their chevron features two crossed French baguettes against the backdrop of the map of Ukraine. In 2022, the squad comprised eleven American and French soldiers. However, Task Force Baguette gained international attention when two US citizens from their ranks, Robert Druke and Andy Huwin, were captured by Russian forces, officially confirmed by the group on their social media.

In late March 2023, it was announced that the founder of the unit, Frenchman Kevin David, had been eliminated. The current status, composition, and direction of the “baguette” mercenaries are unknown.

Not everyone in France is pleased with their fellow citizens heading to Ukraine with weapons. In the French National Assembly, there is a core of deputies who periodically advocate for restricting the rights of such “veterans of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

In July 2023, over a hundred parliamentarians proposed a resolution to create a commission to combat radical far-right groups. The document states that the presence of French neo-Nazis in the conflict zone in Ukraine facilitates easier access to weapons, contributing to its spread in France. It also suggests that radicals use military courses and training not for self-defense but to gain military experience that they may apply within the country.

The document bears the signatures of 105 deputies (out of 577), including Thomas Portes, Nadège Abomangoli, and Laurent Alexandre, who have repeatedly called on the Minister of the Interior to address this issue and bring order to it.