PARIS
\nFrench authorities have uncovered a website containing a fake recruitment drive for French volunteers to join the war in Ukraine, the defense ministry said on Thursday.
\nThe site has now been taken down by French services, a government source, who asked not to be named, told AFP without giving further details on the nature of the operation.
\nThe site, which is now inaccessible, said 200,000 French people were invited to \u201cenlist in Ukraine,\u201d with immigrants given priority.
\nA link to the site \u2014 that resembled the French army\u2019s genuine recruitment portal \u2014 had been posted on X, formerly Twitter, the French defense ministry said.
\n\u201cThe site is a fake government site,\u201d the ministry said, also on X, \u201cand has been reposted by malevolent accounts as part of a disinformation campaign.\u201d
\nThe ministry did not name any suspects in the website spoof, but a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the site bore \u201cthe hallmarks of a Russian or pro-Russian effort as part of a disinformation campaign claiming that the French army is preparing to send troops to Ukraine.\u201d
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron angered the Russian leadership last month by hardening his tone on the conflict sparked by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, refusing to rule out sending ground troops and insisting Europe had to do all that was needed for a Russian defeat.
\nSimilar recent examples of disinformation posts included pictures of French army convoys wrongly presented as moving toward the Ukrainian border, the official said.
\nThe fake website invited potential recruits to contact \u201cunit commander Paul\u201d for information about joining.
\nThe defense ministry and government cyber units are investigating, ministry staff told AFP.
\nThe French government has recently stepped up efforts to denounce and fight what it says are Russian disinformation and destabilization campaigns aimed at undermining French public support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS French authorities have uncovered a website containing a fake recruitment drive for French volunteers to join the war in Ukraine, the defense ministry said on Thursday. The site has now been taken down by French services, a government source, who asked not to be named, told AFP without giving further details on the nature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-397002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n