Messages widely relayed on social networks, in particular by a national gathering manager, said that Etienne de Poncins had left his post in Ukraine.
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“Resignation of the French ambassador to Ukraine”, “the French ambassador to Ukraine left kyiv and says that Zelensky is also gone!”, While new Russian strikes hit the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday on Tuesday on Tuesday October 18, many prorussian accounts circulated a rumor on the resignation of the French ambassador to Ukraine, Etienne de Poncins.
Shared several thousands of times on social networks, the False information was denied by the ambassador himself. “This is a fake news, thank you for removing it immediately”, he published on Twitter Wednesday morning .
@rassnational53 il sagit dune fakenews thank you for immediately withdrawing it
He answered a tweet, from the departmental delegate of the National Rally In Mayenne, Jean-Michel Cadenas . Unhappy candidate for the last legislative elections in the 2 e district of Mayenne (16 % in the first round), the latter had relayed the rumor that Etienne de Poncins had resigned. Without any source, he quoted what was presented as a declaration of the ambassador (“We no longer know what we are defending here, even Volodymyr Zelensky is no longer here in kyiv, why continue to sacrifice the Ukrainian people”) , while adding his comment: “We also wonder!”
At the origin of this bogus quote, false information created from scratch, sometimes accompanied by an reference to an interview with the French ambassador to kyiv in which he told, on October 11 on BFMTV, have ” ‘Afternoon in the cellar “ during the Russian strikes on kyiv, the day before. Implied: shocked and demoralized, M. de Poncins has since given up his post.
In passing, the alleged Verbatim takes over an antiphon in vogue among the pro-Kremlin: the idea that Volodymyr Zelensky would have fled from kyiv, and filmed himself on a green background, from Poland.
The rumor was notably broadcast on the night of Monday to Agora News on Tuesday, a Facebook page located in Algeria propagating many pro-Kremlin rumors, before finding relays in many other similar prorussian news pages, as an international pan -Africanist. However, it is his recovery by a Facebook page presenting itself as that of RT Africa which popularized it.
This last message, always without the shadow of a source, was notably taken up in France by the conspiracy influencer Silvano Trotta . “Nothing in the media … except the Russian media. They would lie when it will be easily verifiable in the days that follow?” He wondered Tuesday evening, on the verge of realizing that, for the umpteenth time, The ufologist AntiVax Pro-Kremlin relayed false information.