French and UK mainstream media reported on Saturday, June 1, that three men were arrested after dropping five coffins wrapped in French flags along with a message that read “French soldiers of Ukraine” placed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The three, a 39-year-old Bulgarian, a 25-year-old German and a Ukrainian national, 16, claimed they were paid €400 ($430) to carry out the deed.
In echoes of that stunt and an apparent continuation of October’s “Stars of David” and May’s “Red Hands” graffiti campaigns, which French intelligence services attributed to pro-Russian agents, more “tags” were discovered in Paris on Friday, June 7 according to a news report carried by the BFM-TV station.
The tags, which were found in parts of Paris’ 7th arrondissement of Paris, included a 30-centimeter (12-inch) stencil of a coffin along with the words “French soldier in Ukraine” in red paint.
As of Saturday evening, French police also held three Moldovan nationals in custody, where prosecutors said investigations are ongoing and the possibility of foreign interference has not been ruled out at this stage, as reported by AFP.
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Three Moldovans were arrested in the same area on the night of Friday to Saturday, “carrying spray paint and stencils that could match,” added the same source, who asked not to be named.
According to an earlier report in Le Monde on Saturday, June 8, responsibility for depositing the coffins and this latest round of painted protests was claimed by a so-called “Ukrainian art group” calling itself Mriya, the Ukrainian word for “peace.”
Le Monde said it was contacted by a spokesperson for the group calling herself Marina, communicating in Russian, who said she was a Ukrainian living in Western Europe and that the protests were a “call for peace” and against the war “which only benefits the oligarchs.”
The group said this latest “artistic performance” was carried out in protest against the three men who were “illegally arrested” on June 1, and the latest announcements of French President Emmanuel Macron promising increased support for the Ukrainian army.
She denied that the group had any links with Russia and that the coffin dumping, and graffiti operations were funded and carried out by “those united by similar convictions,” and were not connected with the earlier tagging.
The French journal looked deeper into the claims, focusing specifically on Mriya's Facebook page, which was a month old yet had received a suspiciously high number of “likes.” The page was removed by Meta because of “inauthentic behavior,” which usually indicates the use of bots and fake profiles.
Comments by Le Monde said the most likely reason for the group contacting the media, both Le Monde and Libération, was as an attempt to deny Russia’s involvement, which French investigators have linked to similar Moscow-inspired operations in several European countries.
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