France accuses Russia of online scheme

PARIS — French government officials on Monday accused Russia of operating a long-running online manipulation campaign against Ukraine’s Western backers in the lead-up to the second anniversary of Moscow’s military invasion of its neighbor.

French foreign ministry officials said in a media briefing that Russia has stepped up efforts to manipulate information and spread deception, targeting Kyiv’s allies in the West, including Poland, Germany and France. They referred to messages on social media platforms such as X, formerly Twitter, and websites like Sputnik as “massive in scope” and “complex in structure.”

The aim of Russia’s disinformation campaign remains the same, officials said: To amplify Russia’s success in the Ukraine war, justify its invasion, discredit and diminish Ukraine’s military resistance and undermine civilians’ resilience in the face of daily attacks on cities and towns and fracture Western support for Ukraine’s military and slow if not stop the flow of weapons to Kyiv.