AFP published no such video. No credible international or Ukrainian outlet reported on such incidents either. The fake is part of a systematic Kremlin campaign to discredit Ukrainian refugees in allied countries.
A video bearing the logo of Agence France-Presse (AFP) is being circulated in the pro-Russian segments of the internet, claiming that a group of Ukrainian refugees in France allegedly sold uncertified peptides — sports supplements diluted with harmful substances to reduce production costs. According to the video, this supposedly led to 59 French citizens between the ages of 16 and 55 dying from thromboembolism. All members of the criminal group were allegedly arrested.
The video is a fabrication. None of Agence France-Presse‘s official social media pages shared such a publication. A keyword search on the agency’s website also returned no results. Furthermore, genuine AFP video content in Reels format does not feature a logo in the upper right corner and always includes captions specifying the source, location, and time of filming for all video and photo materials used. The fake contains no such captions. The use of a recognizable and credible media brand is a typical Russian propaganda technique designed to make the fake video look more authentic.
No credible international or Ukrainian outlet reported on any such incidents in France either.
Stories of this kind fit within the Kremlin’s broader propaganda strategy. Since millions of Ukrainians found temporary refuge in EU countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Russian information operations have been systematically cultivating a negative image of Ukraine in the international information space. This simultaneously achieves several objectives: compromising refugees, undermining trust in Ukraine among its allies, and destabilizing the social climate in countries that support Ukraine.
The reality is the opposite: Ukrainian refugees are not only successfully integrating into the societies of their host countries but are also making a tangible economic contribution. In Poland, for instance, the cumulative contribution of Ukrainians to GDP since the start of the full-scale invasion has amounted to 328.6 billion zloty — nearly eight times more than all of Poland’s assistance to Ukraine and refugees over the same period. The situation is similar in the Czech Republic. In just the first three quarters of last year alone, the net contribution of Ukrainians to the state budget amounted to 11.7 billion Czech crowns — while over the full year the country paid out only 8.8 billion crowns in humanitarian assistance to refugees.
StopFake has previously covered coordinated campaigns to discredit Ukrainian refugees in France in the article Fake: Global Media Linked Ukrainian Refugees to Mass Crimes in France.
