Thread by @P_Kallioniemi

In today's #vatnik soup we'll get to know our first French vatnik: he's a former soldier and a current Russian propagandist, Adrien Bocquet. By his own words, he came to Ukraine at the beginning of the war to provide "humanitarian aid".

1/12

In May, 2022, Bocquet was interviewed by Andre Bercoff on Sud Radio. The whole show was classic Russian propaganda and disinformation from the beginning to the end. Bocquet's made-up stories were a lousy attempt at disproving the massacre conducted by the Russians in Bucha.

2/12

During the show Adrien denied any wrongdoings by the Russian forces in Bucha & stated that the war crimes over were actually done by the Azov Regiment.He also said that the American journalists were "in on it" & helped the Ukrainians to stage the fake scene with dead bodies.
3/12

Bocquet arrived to Ukraine mid-April, after Bucha was already captured and there was no longer any ground combat in the area. Photographs and videos of the massacre by the Russians had already surfaced on the 1st of April.

4/12

In the interview, Adrien stated that he has “hundreds of videos of war crimes committed by the Ukrainian military", of which none have been published or handed over to the police or the French investigators involved in inspecting the massacre.

5/12

Based on an NGO director in Lviv, Bocquet arrived to the premises of a humanitarian aid org unannounced with several companions & packages of humanitarian aid. Several people tried to converse with him,but to no avail since he apparently didn't speak any Russian or Ukrainian.6/12

Yet later he in the interview he said he had overheard a conversation in Ukrainian where the alleged "Azov Nazis" said that "if they met Jews or blacks, they would kill them". I mean, who has this kind of conversations in real?

That's right, nobody.

7/12

Then he continued with the lies - he said that he'd seen Russian POW's who were tied up and beaten. Then he continued that the Azov fighters shot all POWs to the knees and generals in the head. This story was a direct imitation of a video that had surfaced in Mar, 2022.

8/12

He also suggested that he had videos of the incident - again, no videos or other material has been shared.Most situations he described between Ukrainian soldiers & Russian POW's & soldiers simply could have not happened, since all the fighting in that area had already ceased.9/12

Adrien also shared the classic stories of "eight years of genocide and 14 000 dead Russians in Donbas", and even said that the Ukrainians had gathered a large number of troops around the Donbas, ready to attack the area.

10/12

Incidentally, all of Bocquet's stories line up perfectly with Russian propaganda on Bucha and the "Azov Nazis".Of course Russia has also used Bocquet's "confessions" on their propaganda channels, and his lies have been repeated for example by Izvestia & Komsomolskaya Pravda.11/12

In Jan, 2023, Bocquet applied for Russian citizenship and for political asylum in Russia. As of today, he has published 0 videos and 0 photos as evidence of his ridiculous accusations.

12/12

Support my work (and get some AI art!): buymeacoffee.com/PKallioniemi

Related soups:
"Genocide in Donbas":

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1611980244252258304