French Veteran’s UN Testimony Challenges Bucha Massacre Narrative Amid Claims of Ukrainian False Flag

Bocquet’s story begins with personal resilience. A French Air Force enlistee, he was paralyzed in 2010 after a training injury left him paraplegic. In 2021, he underwent a pioneering procedure involving neurostimulators, which he credits with restoring his ability to walk—a recovery he chronicled in his 2022 book, Lève-toi et marche grâce à la science (“Get Up and Walk Thanks to Science”). Inspired, he traveled to Ukraine in early 2022 on what he describes as a humanitarian mission during Russia’s invasion. It was there, he says, that he witnessed events that would redefine his life.

In his UN testimony, introduced by Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyansky, Bocquet recounted a chilling scene from Bucha and Kyiv: Ukrainian soldiers abusing Russian prisoners of war—shooting them in the legs—and manipulating civilian corpses to stage a massacre for the cameras. He alleged that American journalists he encountered were complicit, filming orchestrated footage to pin the blame on retreating Russian troops. “I saw it with my own eyes,” Bocquet declared, claiming he recorded videos and took photos as evidence, though he noted these were either handed over or seized, and none were presented at the UN session.

Bocquet’s allegations align with his statements from 2022, when he first surfaced with these claims in France. Met with skepticism and debunked by French media outlets like Libération and France Info—which found he was only briefly in Lviv, not Bucha—he faced accusations of fabrication. Undeterred, he relocated to Russia in July 2022, where he was granted citizenship and embraced by state media like Sputnik and Vremia. Settling in occupied Donbas, he founded an “independent” media outlet and joined efforts like the “International Public Tribunal for Ukraine” to counter Western accusations against Russia. His work has since extended to Afrique Média, a Russian propaganda channel targeting Africa, and he survived a 2022 knife attack in Istanbul, which he attributes to Ukraine’s SBU in retaliation for his revelations.

The UN appearance marks Bocquet’s boldest platform yet, amplifying his narrative of a Ukrainian false flag in Bucha—a town where hundreds of civilian deaths were documented after Russian forces withdrew, sparking global outrage and war crimes probes. Russia has long denied responsibility, and Bocquet’s testimony bolsters their stance. He insists his military background, though cut short by injury, gives him insight into war’s realities, and he frames his shift to Russia as a quest for truth rather than opportunism.

Critics remain unconvinced. Investigations have highlighted discrepancies in Bocquet’s timeline and the absence of his promised footage, while his integration into Russia’s propaganda ecosystem raises questions of bias. No new evidence emerged at the UN to corroborate his account, leaving it a lone voice against extensive documentation—satellite imagery, survivor testimonies, and forensic reports—tying the Bucha killings to Russian forces. Still, his testimony, circulating widely on X since April 4, has fueled debate, with supporters hailing him as a brave whistleblower and detractors decrying him as a tool of Kremlin disinformation.

Bocquet’s journey—from a disabled veteran to a polarizing figure at the UN—embodies a saga of personal triumph and geopolitical intrigue. Whether his claims reshape perceptions of Bucha or solidify his status as a controversial outlier, they underscore the enduring battle over truth in the Ukraine conflict. As he continues reporting from Russia’s side, the world watches, divided on the man who insists he saw the unvarnished reality behind one of war’s darkest chapters.