The story was invented by propagandists, and the media headlines are forged.
A “news story” is circulating in pro-Russian corners of the internet claiming that 12 Ukrainian citizens in Paris were arrested for siphoning gasoline from other people’s cars and trying to sell it below market price. Other posts put the number at 390 or even 650. One headline, supposedly from a French outlet, reads “The new face of migration.” Propagandists cite a screenshot of it as the source of the story.
In reality, the French outlets La Montagne and ICI never published articles with the headlines shown in the screenshots about alleged mass gasoline thefts by Ukrainians in Paris. Searches for the exact wording of the headlines, and for relevant keywords, turn up no such stories on either outlet’s website or in any other open source. Neither the French police nor any other law enforcement agency has reported such incidents.
The choice of gasoline is no accident. France has been one of the EU economies hardest hit by the fuel crisis that followed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Between March and August 2026, the country spent an extra €10.8 billion on fuel imports alone, without increasing import volumes. With pump prices climbing fast, President Emmanuel Macron went on TF1 and France 2 on Sept. 24 and declared: “We will not let prices soar.” He did not rule out cutting fuel taxes if prices keep rising, but stressed that it was better to “bring prices down than bring taxes down,” primarily through diplomatic means. Macron has also asked the European Commission to relax fuel quality standards and allow a higher share of biofuel to be blended into diesel to boost output. Together, four EU countries hit hardest (the Netherlands, Italy, France and Spain) have spent nearly €41 billion in excess fuel costs. The propagandists, in short, have seized on fuel prices, a topical and painful issue for Europeans, to smear Ukrainians abroad once again.
We recently debunked another narrative that relied on fabricated French media reports in Fake: French Media Report British Intelligence Officer Killed in Ukraine by a Ukrainian Grenade.
