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The Russian and French embassies in Türkiye publicly clashed on the social media platform X on Wednesday, exchanging sharp accusations over the war in Ukraine just one day after the conflict's fourth anniversary, in a rare display of open diplomatic hostility played out on Turkish soil.
The exchange began when the Russian Embassy in Ankara (@RusEmbTurkey) posted statements from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who reiterated Moscow's longstanding justifications for its invasion. The embassy quoted Peskov as saying that the main goal of the "special military operation" was "to ensure the security of people living in eastern Ukraine and facing a real mortal threat." Peskov also said Russia "remains open to political and diplomatic solutions to achieve its goals," but added that "everything currently depends on the actions of the Kyiv regime."
The post included an additional charge aimed at Paris and London, with Peskov claiming that France and the United Kingdom's alleged intention to supply nuclear weapons to Kyiv "clearly violates all relevant principles and rules of international law." The Peskov statements garnered nearly 9,500 views.
The French Embassy in Türkiye (@FranceenTurquie) did not let the Russian post go unanswered. In a quote-tweet of the Russian embassy's Peskov statements, the French diplomatic mission wrote sarcastically in Turkish: "We've entered the 5th year of the war that was supposed to last 3 days, and look, Russia is still making statements saying 'France-UK deterrence is a threat.'" The post was a pointed reference to the widely cited Western assessment at the start of the 2022 invasion that Moscow expected to capture Kyiv within days.
The Russian Embassy then fired back directly at its French counterpart, this time writing in both French and Turkish. In the post, which was timestamped at 10:52 PM on Wednesday and collected 516 views, Moscow's diplomatic mission accused France of reducing its famed diplomacy to "pathetic and lamentable posts on the social network X."
The embassy went further, accusing Paris of being "one of the most important sponsors of the Nazi regime in Kyiv, which has been massacring the civilian population of its own country, including children and women, since 2014." The post concluded with a historical taunt, asking whether "perhaps it is the ghosts of 1812 that still haunt the French government," a reference to Napoleon's catastrophic invasion of Russia more than two centuries ago.
The social media confrontation unfolded against the backdrop of heightened tensions surrounding the war's anniversary. On February 24, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service accused France and the United Kingdom of covertly planning to supply Ukraine with nuclear weapons technology, a claim both countries denied and which Kyiv dismissed as "absurd." Kremlin spokesperson Peskov described the alleged plans as "bordering on insanity" and said the information would be taken into account during ongoing peace negotiations.
The war in Ukraine, which entered its fifth year on February 24, 2026, has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides and devastated Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Russia has suffered an estimated 325,000 soldier deaths since February 2022, while Ukrainian military deaths are estimated at around 140,000. Peace talks facilitated by the United States have so far produced limited results, with the Kremlin acknowledging that its original military objectives remain unmet.
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