There is no evidence that any weapons provided to Ukraine by Western partners were used during the recent protests in France.
Russian media have been busy disseminating Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s claim that weapons supplied by Western partners to Ukraine were used by the rioters in France. Zakharova stated that Western weapons do not only boomerang back to European countries, but also hurt their own people. “Weapons supplied to Kyiv end up in the hands of protesters and are used against the police in France,” Zakharova said.
Maria Zakharova did not specify the source for her claims. However, since the beginning of July, pro-Russian Telegram channels, citing Western media, have been massively-spreading the “news” that French protesters are using American large-caliber Accuracy International rifles against the police, rifles which were previously provided by the United States to Ukraine as military aid. As proof, they publish a screenshot of a headline in English French police are shelled with US rifles that may have come from Ukraine, without providing the name of the alleged publication or a link to the story.
There is no publication with this title in any Western media. The screenshot being circulated has no additional information, such as date of publication, author, name of the source. The photograph used in the post was first published on a Russian military blog about a 2012 shooting competition at a range near Moscow.
This screenshot was also published by several disreputable English-language media (Global Euronews and right wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ NewsWars), they too did not provide a source for the claim nor any additional information. What’s more, analysts at the Media Bias/Fact Check source credibility assessment site rate NewsWars as “questionable” based on its spread of “extreme right-wing bias, propaganda of pseudoscience and conspiracies, as well as the publication of fake news from unreliable sources.”
It is also worth noting that Accuracy International is a British firearms manufacturer and not an American one, as Russian Telegram channels claim.
StopFake was unable to find even one reliable source that would confirm that weapons provided to Ukraine by Western partners could have been used during the recent riots in France. As of now, no reliable media source or French authorities have reported this.
This “news” was most likely created for Russian propaganda purposes. On Twitter the above-mentioned image was distributed mainly by pro-Russian accounts, often with a blue checkmark. (In December 2022 Twitter relaunched an option to pay for the blue check marks whereby accounts pay for their content to be promoted to other users.) BBC analysts found that these accounts often spread disinformation about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
French media reported that protesters mostly used fireworks and Roman candles as weapons against law enforcement, but some weapons were indeed used. As France24 reported, in Marseille protesters looted a gun shop, taking several rifles. Police also reported other incidents involving the use of illegal weapons, including shotguns and other types of firearms. In one protest video, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, the most common small arms weapon in the world, is seen. However, none of these cases is related to the supply of weapons to Ukraine. French law enforcement agencies have not confirmed that firearms used by the rioters might have entered France illegally from Ukraine.
Kremlin propaganda carefully crafts a narrative about Western weapons disappearing from Ukraine and ending up in illegal markets around the world. StopFake previously debunked similar disinformation in stories such as Fake: Finnish Criminal Groups Receive Weapons From Ukraine, Fake: Europol Reports Cases of Arms Smuggling From Ukraine, Fake: Western Weapons Supplied to Ukraine Appear in RAM in Europe and Africa, Manipulation: Ukraine Drives Up Criminal Activity in Eastern Europe.
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