For some reason, it always sets my antennae twitching when someone feels they need to use that adjective about an online source.
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So do we have Russian-sponsored fear-and-dissension spreaders in our midst?
Asking for a friend…
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There are French volunteers fighting in Ukraine’s international legion https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/04/26/they-need-us-the-french-volunteers-fighting-in-ukraine-s-international-legion_6024477_4.html
I suspect this is the grain of truth that this fake news is based on.
At a time of war and foreign agression we all have a duty to be very careful about the things we share online. That includes, imo, the owners of this website. Somebody may be just be scrolling through, see the title of this post, take it for true without even clicking on it, believe it and move on.
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Probably a social media recycling of the old shaggy dog Russian misinformation propaganda
There is a tendency to read, digest and pass on items of information without due care of research. The internet now makes this very dangerous at speed and bad actors revel in the ether.
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Are you suggesting that the BBC is a reliable source?
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I appreciate that it may not align with your biases but, in factual reporting, it remains one of the best.
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There’s big difference in being a soldier who’s enlisted in an another country’s armed forces and a “mercenary”, what’s now usually referred to as a private military contractor or PMC.
The most important one being the former is treated as per the Geneva and Hague conventions by enemy forces and the later isn’t automatically granted theses protections.
I mentioned BBC Verify (though I neglected to capitalise the “v”).
“On 17 May 2023, BBC News CEO Deborah Turness announced that the corporation was unveiling a team of 60 journalists called BBC Verify. The team would be tasked to do full fact-checking by investigating video and clips, analysing data, and also conducting their own investigations.
From what I’ve read the legionnaires who have attempted to go to Ukraine are deserters and in fact some have been stopped en route and arrested by the French for desertion.
Usual internet bollocks I suspect.
“Internet bollocks” or Russian troll?
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Where’s the Russian troll ? Did we scare it off ?
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Perhaps it remembered what happened to the Wagner Group when they attacked a joint US/SDF base in Syria in 2018.
Google “Battle of Kasham/Conoco Fields”
Whilst this may very well be Russian propaganda, today, VE Day, is an appropriate time to remember what happened when a dictator was allowed to go storming around Europe before any intervention.
Ukraine is our Maginot line and should get all the support it needs.
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Fake news. Infox in French. As tweeted by The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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I agree with all that, but maybe the Maginot line is not a good example, did it not stop short of the Channel, allowing the Germans to simply go round it?
Yes, because a) the French thought the Ardennes were impassable to motorised transport and tanks (wrong!) and b) the Belgians were on the left flank and stuck rigidly to their neutrality until it was too late.
Ironically, the Maginot line was not only a waste of time and (lots) of money because of its static nature, but had that money been spent on improving the equipment and (especially) the leadership training of the French army, the events of 1940 could well have taken a very different turn. The defeat of France was arguably more down to chaotic leadership and lack of coordination within the French army than it was to the blitzkrieg tactics and relentless drive of the Wehrmacht.
But the Germans made the same mistake in 1944 with the Siegfried Line.
“Fixed fortifications are monuments to man’s stupidity.” - attributed to George S. Patton