Claims that the Gironde has been renamed are false. The story originated as a comedy video on TikTok. A little-noticed petition later appeared based on it, and Russian outlets passed the joke off first as a genuine grassroots initiative and then as a decision already taken by the authorities.
Russian media and Telegram channels are circulating claims that the French department of Gironde has temporarily changed its name to “Ukraine” in order to obtain state funding for fighting wildfires more quickly.
“Money to save the Gironde from the flames has to be begged for over years, while a tranche for Ukraine will arrive faster than the first pine tree can burn down,” Tsargrad asserts. The publication is accompanied by a screenshot of a post by the French account Le Contemplateur, in which the territory of the Gironde is labeled “Ukraine.”
The claims spreading online are false. Here is what actually happened.
In the second half of July 2026, the Gironde did indeed experience one of the season’s largest wildfires. According to an official statement from the Élysée Palace dated July 27, the fire, which began on July 22 in the Saumos area, consumed nearly 42,000 hectares. Evacuations affected 220,000 people, and hundreds of buildings were destroyed or damaged.
Against the backdrop of this emergency, a satirical premise appeared on social media: that the department ought to rename itself “Ukraine” in order to receive aid from Paris more quickly.
The earliest identified post appeared overnight on July 26–27 on the TikTok account Stealth Hawk. The author explicitly labeled the video as humorous and warned that anyone inclined to take everything literally would do better not to watch.
Several hours later, on July 27, a petition titled “Let’s Rename the Gironde ‘Ukraine'” was created on Change.org. Its content likewise turns on a contrast between aid to Ukraine and French spending on firefighting aircraft. The petition was posted by a user under a pseudonym and gathered only a few dozen signatures. It has no connection whatsoever to the departmental council, the French government, or any other official body. Any user can post a petition on Change.org.
The following day, Le Contemplateur published an analogous joke. It was a screenshot of this post that Tsargrad subsequently used, stripping out any indication of the story’s humorous origin.
The claim was distorted several times as it spread. Russian outlets initially reported that Gironde residents had genuinely launched a renaming campaign. Tsargrad then presented it as an accomplished fact — that the department had officially and temporarily changed its name.
In reality, the local authorities’ official website still lists the region as the Département de la Gironde. No reports of a renaming appear on the department’s site or on the resources of the prefecture or the French government.
The central claim of the Russian publication — that the Gironde had to “beg” the state for assistance — is likewise false. As of July 27, more than 2,500 firefighters, 1,500 military personnel, 1,200 police and gendarmes, 450 civil protection staff and volunteers, and 18 aircraft had been deployed to fight the fire. France activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and received additional aviation and rescue forces from other European countries. These figures appear in the Élysée Palace’s official report. The department itself also organized emergency accommodation and social assistance for evacuees and victims.
Kremlin propaganda routinely exploits emergencies, natural disasters, and crises to discredit Ukraine and the assistance provided to it by international partners. The purpose of this manipulation is to stoke French public resentment of support for Ukraine and to create the impression that aid to Kyiv comes at the expense of the security and social needs of French citizens.
StopFake previously debunked false claims that the scale of Europe’s wildfires was caused by EU sanctions against Russia.
