Coffins Marked 'French Soldiers in Ukraine' Left Near Eiffel Tower

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Facts

• Three people have been detained after they allegedly left five life-size coffins draped in French flags with the inscription 'French soldiers in Ukraine' near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday.¹
• The coffins, left on the Quai Branly in Paris — which is preparing to host the 2024 Olympic Games — reportedly contained gypsum, not corpses.²
• French officials claim that the incident is connected with another from mid-May, when the Shoah Memorial was sprayed with red hands, suspecting both of being Russian interference operations.³
• The three men — a Bulgarian, a Ukrainian and a German — remain in French custody in connection with the latest incident. According to AFP, the Bulgarian man was paid €40 ($43) to drive the two others who were arrested separately at the Bercy terminal on their way to Berlin.²
• While the men's motives remain unclear, the inscription on the coffins suggests a link to discussions initiated by French Pres. Emmanuel Macron regarding stationing NATO troops inside Ukraine.¹
• Last week, the defense ministries of France and Ukraine announced that French instructors would be deployed in Ukraine to train troops and carry out military repairs.⁴

Sources: ¹Ukrainska Pravda, ²RFI, ³Le Monde.fr and ⁴The Kyiv Independent.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by BBC News. Data from the three suspects' phones shows that they were in contact with another man whose role in a previous suspected Russian interference operation is being probed. This is clearly Russia trying to foment agitation to discredit France's unwavering support of Ukraine.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Barrons. As the motives of the three men remain unknown, it's premature to blame Moscow for France's security lapse. Instead of investigating the incident as a possible interference by a foreign power, French officials must focus on closing security loopholes.

Predictions