Russia said on Wednesday that it had targeted a building the previous evening where “French mercenaries” were deployed in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, located in the north-east of the country. “On the evening of January 16, Russian armed forces carried out a precision strike on a temporary deployment point of foreign fighters in Kharkiv, the core of which consisted of French mercenaries,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram .
France denies having “mercenaries” in Ukraine
France “does not have ‘mercenaries'” in Ukraine, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday, in reaction to Moscow’s assertions that it had targeted a building on Tuesday where “French mercenaries” were deployed in Kharkiv ( northeast). “France has no ‘mercenaries’, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere, unlike others. This is a new crude Russian manipulation. We should not give it more importance than the previous ones and the following ones which are sure to arrive,” added the Quai d’Orsay.
According to Moscow, the “strike completely destroyed the building where the mercenaries were stationed” and left more than 60 dead and 20 injured. These claims were immediately unverifiable from independent sources.
17 injured in Russian strike on Kharkiv
Ukraine, for its part, reported Tuesday evening a Russian strike using two S-300 missiles on Kharkiv which injured at least 17 people, including two women who are in serious condition, and damaged residential buildings. Russia regularly bombs the Kharkiv region, where Ukrainian authorities announced on Tuesday the evacuation of 26 villages due to the threat of an assault by Moscow’s forces in the area.
Moscow’s claim for this strike comes after Emmanuel Macron’s announcement on Tuesday that France would deliver 40 additional long-range Scalp missiles and “hundreds of bombs” to kyiv. He also indicated that France was “in the process of finalizing a security agreement” with kyiv of the type of that concluded on Friday between the United Kingdom and Ukraine over ten years, which he will announce during his visit there in FEBRUARY.