The Ministry of the Armed Forces denounced this Thursday a false website using its official logo and inviting 200,000 French people to “engage in Ukraine”, an operation similar to others of the same type attributed to Russian or pro-Russian interests.
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“The URL of a site
engaging in Ukraine
which uses the graphic charter of government sites is currently circulating on X,” indicates the ministry on the social network. “This site is a fake government site, relayed on social networks by malicious accounts, for a disinformation campaign.”
🚨 #Disinformation. The URL of a “get involved in Ukraine” site which uses the graphic charter of government sites is currently circulating on X. This site is a fake government site, relayed on social networks by malicious accounts, for a… pic.twitter.com/SuVUrocVPk
— Ministry of the Armed Forces 🇫🇷 (@Armees_Gouv) March 28, 2024
The site has been deactivated
The site in question, inaccessible at the end of the morning, invited volunteers to leave their contact details. “Immigrants have priority”, he specified in particular, offering to discuss with “Captain Paul, unit commander”. The French organization fighting against foreign digital interference, Viginum, was contributing to the investigation, the office of the minister, Sébastien Lecornu, told AFP.
“The ministry's services are mobilized alongside Viginum to shed light on this informational maneuver targeting France,” said the firm, denouncing “a usurpation of an official site of the army”. According to a government source, the site was deactivated by French services. The message on X from the ministry specifies that the address http://sengage.fr is the only valid one for joining the Army. The Ministry of the Armed Forces did not officially provide any leads on Thursday as to the authors of the forgery.
“The mark of a Russian or pro-Russian device”
But a senior French official told AFP that he bore "the mark of a Russian or pro-Russian device, as part of the disinformation campaign according to which the French army is preparing to send men to Ukraine » fight against Russia. “Everything converges: the narrative, the method. There is a maneuver,” he added on condition of anonymity, referring, among other recent examples, to images of French convoys allegedly traveling towards the Ukrainian border recently broadcast on social networks.
After having remained on the defensive for a long time in the face of Russian informational assaults, Paris has launched in recent weeks a muscular and methodical denunciation of the multiple attempts at destabilization targeting France, remotely guided, according to the French authorities, by Moscow to undermine the support of public opinion to the Ukrainian cause.
In an interview with Le Figaro on Thursday, the head of Viginum, Marc-Antoine Brillant, revealed that the organization identified nearly 230 inauthentic phenomena on social networks last year, including a dozen foreign interferences. “This is 40% more than in 2022,” he specifies. “Russia is asserting itself as the most aggressive actor in the information field.”
In fact, Russian information attacks seem to be increasing against France while Paris recently concluded a bilateral security agreement with kyiv, with Moscow denouncing Paris' “growing involvement” in the conflict. Emmanuel Macron also raised at the end of February the possibility of sending Western soldiers to Ukraine, creating controversy even within the Western camp.