On February 1, the French Canal+ television channel aired an investigative film about Ukrainian far-right parliamentary groups by the French documentary maker Paul Moreira, titled “Masks of Revolution.” The film covers the events in Ukraine in 2014, including the rise of far-right radical groups such as The Right Sector, The Azov Battalion and the Svoboda political party as well as the deadly violence in the southern Ukrainian town of Odessa, which left over 40 anti-government protesters dead.
"I hope that after seeing the report, the French government, including [Foreign Minister Laurent] Fabius, will put an end to the policy of imposing unilateral sanctions against Russia, as well as postpone the visa-free regime with Ukraine, since the film demonstrates [to] us how Ukraine is neither a legal nor a democratic state as shown by the local elections in Krivoy Rog and Mariupol," Schaffhauser said.
"I am happy that Canal+ was brave enough…I am happy that after the February 2014 coup, people began to see the true nature of the illegal formations supporting the regime in Kiev, and the nature of the coup orchestrated by the United States," Schaffhauser said.
Ukraine's government voiced protests against the film, urging the French broadcaster to take the documentary off air. The film's creator Moreira called it "denial, bordering on hysteria."
