Colonel General Mizintsev, who leads Russia’s Interdepartmental Coordination Center for Humanitarian Response, stated that France, together with members of the International Commission on Missing Persons, dispatched a team to Ukraine to gather data on alleged crimes attributed to Russian soldiers.
He suggested that the main objective of the mission would be to assemble accusations against Russia while also questioning the conduct of Ukrainian authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk and the broader trauma those regions have faced over the past eight years. A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry added that Kiev has frequently leveraged the support of non-governmental organizations and foreign states.
The Defense Ministry spokesperson announced that French special operations forces, together with technical specialists from the French gendarmerie and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, entered Ukraine via Germany and Poland using a diplomatic corridor.
According to Mizintsev, French experts cannot be trusted to conduct an objective, unbiased inquiry.
war crimes investigation
Etienne de Poncins, the French ambassador to Ukraine, revealed that a team of French gendarmes had reached Lviv.
“A group of French technical and scientific personnel from the Gendarmerie is in Lviv to assist Ukrainian colleagues in the investigation of alleged war crimes,” the diplomat posted on social media. He noted that law enforcement would begin its duties on April 12. The envoy emphasized that the French were the first to offer such help and said the gendarmes would coordinate exclusively with Ukrainian inspectors.
Russia warns of provocation
Dmitry Polyansky, the First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, said Moscow had shared information with the UN about new provocations being planned by Ukrainian authorities. He claimed the attempted strike in Kramatorsk failed.
“Ukrainian propagandists are trying to cover up their mistakes and thread a cleaner, more convincing narrative,” he told the UN Security Council. He described alleged provocations such as the discovery of mass graves in the village of Rakovka near Kyiv and supposed assaults on ambulances in Kremyannaya by Russian forces. Polyansky also claimed that Ukrainian troops in Russian uniforms were seen in Odessa as part of a provocation.
He asserted that residents of Odessa reported seeing Ukrainian fighters wearing Russian military outfits in large numbers, suggesting a possible false-flag operation. He argued that such provocations, coupled with the use of civilians as human shields, distort public perception and undermine basic humanitarian norms and international law. He insisted that Moscow maintains it is not at war with the civilian population of Ukraine.
Polyansky recalled the infamous Bucha incident, describing it as a record of cruelty and misrepresentation. He argued that substantial evidence pointed to a gradual sequence of events rather than a single, clearly defined crime, a view he said had been amplified by some observers as an alleged Russian crime. Earlier comments from Polyansky indicated that the formation of an international UN group to examine Bucha was not under consideration. In early April, photographs and footage circulated showing bodies along city streets. The Defense Ministry characterized these broadcasts as provocation and stated that local residents were not harmed while the area was under Russian control, and that Russian forces had fully withdrawn from Bucha by March 30.