4-6-2024 (PARIS) In a startling display near one of Paris’s most iconic landmarks, French authorities have arrested three individuals after five empty coffins draped in the nation’s tricolor were discovered at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on June 1. The harrowing scene featured the chilling words “French soldiers from Ukraine” emblazoned on the coffins, prompting a swift response from law enforcement.
The three suspects, hailing from Bulgaria, Germany, and Ukraine, are all under the age of 30. Prosecutors have requested that they be charged with premeditated violence, citing the act of leaving coffins at the iconic Parisian site as an act of psychological warfare.
This unsettling incident comes amidst growing tensions surrounding France’s potential involvement in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Diplomatic sources revealed to Reuters last week that France could soon dispatch military trainers to the war-torn nation, a move that has raised concerns among some allies and drawn criticism from Russia.
According to the French daily Le Monde, which cited security documents, the three men had been in contact with an individual suspected of spraying red handprints on the Paris Shoah Memorial, a Holocaust museum, in mid-May – a disturbing act of vandalism that has further fueled unease.
This is not the first time French authorities have grappled with such incidents. In November, prosecutors launched an investigation into whether two Moldovan nationals who admitted to defacing Parisian properties with Stars of David were acting on the instructions of an individual abroad. Following news reports suggesting the pair received directions from someone in Russia, the prosecutor’s office confirmed that they had communicated with a Russian individual via telephone.
