The Foreign Ministry has confirmed the death of this 32-year-old man, who is believed to have died in the Kharkiv region.
Europe 1 announced Thursday the death of a “first French fighter, mortally wounded by artillery fire in the Kharkiv region on June 1“. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which confirmed the information the next day, did not reveal his identity. For its part, the Ukrainian foreign legion, which brings together volunteers from all over the world, revealed the death of four of its members, including a Frenchman: Wilfried B. According to his mother Catherine, at the microphone ofEuropean 1 he would have been surprised with his unit of “twelve soldiers of all nationalities» and would thus have perished, as well as another soldier. Contacted by Le Figarothe Quai d’Orsay indicates that it has no further information at this stage.
SEE ALSO – War in Ukraine: a Frenchman killed in the fighting, announces the Quai d’Orsay
Read also“New Russia”, a new Russian argument to carve up Ukraine
Aged 32 and from Bayeux, this man would have, according to an article by West France Normandy from 2013, chained odd jobs after high school in the construction, industry and oyster farming sectors before being hired via a future employment contract. In a filmed interview granted to a Spanish journalist in March in Poland, the man said to himself “ready to die for Europe and the Ukrainian peopleclaiming to have served a year in the French army. Information that has not yet been verified.
He also claims to be the father of two daughters. However, his mother indicates on Europe 1 that he leaves behind an eight-year-old daughter. She describes him as not “not finding its place” in France, but “feeling great in Ukrainefirst to help the refugees there. Wilfried B. is said to have boarded a bus from Paris to Poland, not telling his mother until he arrived there. After spending time in a humanitarian center in Medyka (Poland), he met, according to his mother, “a German who dropped him off somewhereto enlist in the Ukrainian legion, the creation of which had been desired by Volodymyr Zelensky shortly after the launch of the Russian invasion.
His memory hailed by the group “misanthropic division»
On the Telegram account “misanthropic division», the sacrifice of Wilfried B. is hailed. He is described there as a “proud member of the WSMDivision, French legionnaire, man who fought against Bolshevism and antifascists all his life“. A kitty on the encrypted channel has been set up to financially support his family. The misanthropic division, a neo-Nazi movement with no established hierarchy, had been engaged in the Donbass in 2014 and 2015. Since then, its role has been confined to recruitment to fight the Russian army. Nevertheless, at this stage, it is not proven that Wilfried B. maintained links with this movement, whether in France or in Ukraine.
According to Europe 1, the Ministry of the Armed Forces would be in contact with the family to repatriate the body, first to Orly then to Normandy. The costs would even be borne by the Ukrainian army. Contacted, the Ministry of the Armed Forces refers to the Quai d’Orsay which has “no more information“. Last March, Médiapart revealed the presence of 150 French people who had left to fight the Russian army.
Monday, May 30, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, French journalist special correspondent for the BFMTV channel, was fatally injured while covering the evacuation of civilians around Sieverodonetsk. According to the governor of the province of Lugansk, Serhiy Gaïdaï, the journalist had boarded an evacuation truck “went to get 10 people» when he fell “under enemy fire”. A shrapnel went through the windshield, the “knock on the neck”.