Ségolène Royal questions war crimes in Ukraine: shock and outrage

New road exit for Ségolène Royal. On BFMTV, the former Minister of the Environment caused outrage with her comments on the war crimes perpetrated by the Russian army in Ukraine...

It's been a few months since Ségolène Royal got us used to road trips of all kinds. But this September 1, on the set of BFM TV , she crossed a new line by publicly questioning the war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict last February.

Ségolène Royal: her shocking remarks on the war in Ukraine

As war continues to rage in Ukraine, Ségolène Royal did not hesitate to question the veracity of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's remarks, starting with the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital , a city in southeastern Ukraine, last March. 'You can imagine that if there was the slightest victim, the slightest baby with blood, in the age of cell phones we would have had (the images, nldr)…' , she said, causing an initial uproar on the set of the news channel.

'There is war propaganda through fear': Ségolène Royal questions certain possible war crimes in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/C02qnhfQtr

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) September 1, 2022

In the aftermath, the 2007 presidential candidate also raised doubts about the Boutcha massacre . 'The stories of child rape for seven hours in front of parents. It's monstrous to spread things like this just to disrupt peace processes' , dared former minister that Volodymyr Zelensky 'vehicle of horrors' and maintains a 'war propaganda through fear' .

Ségolène Royal provokes the indignation of the French political class

A sequence which did not fail to react to the entire French political class. Olivier Faure, the current first secretary of the PS, for example, immediately declared on Twitter: 'War crimes are documented, denying it is an insult to the murdered, the raped, the tortured! To say otherwise is propaganda!' . Before completing, in a second tweet: “Ukrainians are the resisters in a war they did not choose until proven otherwise” .

For his part, the MEP for Place Publique Raphaël Glucksmann described this statement as 'Shipwreck. Total' and described the ex-ambassador of the Poles as a ''Left' Philippot' .

Shipwreck. Total.
1/ The maternity hospital in question was indeed bombed
2/The Ukrainian fighters mentioned were indeed tortured
3/ it was not a speech that stopped the peace process (?), but the invasion of Ukraine
4/Madame Royal has become a left-wing Philippot. https://t.co/8Lf63uaL31

—Raphael Glucksmann (@rglucks1) September 1, 2022

However, this is not the first time that Ségolène Royal has expressed reservations about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Already, at the beginning of August, she had sparked controversy with a tweet in which she declared: 'NGOs are also still awaiting proof of the alleged horrors, locations and names of victims. Horrors that led to more war and halted any peace process: pregnant women and babies bombed, torture of prisoners, child victims of rape: Where? When? Who?' , had then declared the socialist.